After more than a week of reading, writing, theorizing and philosophizing about the show's endlessly debatable June 10 conclusion - and I love that sort of thing, but the ''Sopranos'' circuits in my brain were fried by last Friday - I feel the need to express one more thought.

David Chase, the creator of the show, should tell us once and for all whether Tony Soprano died at the end of the finale.

In the only interview Chase has given about the finale, he told the Newark Star-Ledger that he has ''no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting or adding to what is there.''

Chase implied to the Star-Ledger that fans should be clear about what the ending meant. ''Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there,'' he said.

If it's all there, why is Chase sending hints and trying to get us to think a particular way about the ending?

In two stories that appeared late last week, the ''Tony is dead'' believers got some new clues to interpret, courtesy of an HBO spokesman.

A pre-finale conversation between Tony and Bobby Bacala about what it would be like to be whacked was a ''legitimate'' clue, the HBO representative told Reuters.

In that conversation with the Mafia boss, Bacala speculated that you probably wouldn't hear anything if you were whacked - which mirrored the silence that abruptly ended the ''Sopranos'' finale.

And The New York Times revealed in a Saturday story that Chase originally had wanted that final silence to last 30 seconds. ''It's certainly plausible to see that as a reference to death,'' the HBO spokesman said.

So, let me get this straight: Chase has no interest in explaining the finale, yet he is explaining it - possibly - through an intermediary?

Tony would have a choice expletive for that kind of hypocritical doubletalk.

I'll settle for this: Just tell us if Tony died, Chase.

As part of an effort to urge him to come clean, I've prepared a petition at the site Petition Online.

If you believe that Chase should tell us whether Tony Soprano lived or died at the end of the ''Sopranos'' finale, sign the petition, which is here: www.petitiononline.com/tsoprano/petition.html.

Honestly, I can live with ambiguity. I'm not necessarily allergic to it.

I wasn't happy to be yanked out of the ''Sopranos'' world so viciously, but I'd made a sort of peace with it.

By stoking certain speculation about the ending, and in particular helping to fuel the whole ''Tony is dead'' movement in the online world, Chase himself gave an opening to those who want a definitive answer. It looks to me as though he had a particular ending for Tony in mind - one he didn't fully share with us.

Maybe Chase just couldn't bring himself to have the last image of the series be Meadow Soprano seeing her father shot to death as she arrived at that New Jersey diner.

But if that's what Chase did, he should come clean.

Then again, he may want to make a ''Sopranos'' movie some day, in which case we might never get an answer, so he can keep his options open.

The fact remains, though, that if Tony did die, Chase has some explaining to do - in a poll on the Chicago Tribune's Web site, only about a third of more than 350 respondents said they thought Tony was dead.

In a Newsday poll, 45 percent of more than 7,000 responders called the ''Sopranos'' ending the ''worst finale ever,'' though clearly many other fans think it was brilliant.

In any case, the ''Sopranos'' creator brought this petition on himself.

Don't just throw out bread crumbs of information - cut to the Chase.

Did Tony live or die? Tell us.