"Patricia Shannon" wrote in
message ...
What causes some of the original messages to be blank, such as in this
case?
I can see the reply fine. I've noticed the same thing in several places.
Obviously, the people who reply can read the original msg

The original message was blank because the OP didn't put anything in the
message body. The people who reply presumably read the question in the
subject line, though many participants in newsgroups will ignore questions
posed that way.
--
David Biddulph