I’d heard something about this earlier today, and couldn’t bring myself to go look until just now.
Al Weisel, the brilliant writer behind the purportedly eponymous blog Jon Swift, has died.
“Jon” was consistently one of the kindest, most humane people in the progressive blog world. He got in touch with me a couple years back with a good word when my life was not at its most joyous, which meant a lot to me. He inhabited a realm online characterized almost entirely by shallow meanspiritedness — poking fun at the wingnuts — but he approached his writing with consistent humanity and kindness. Some of that was a deliberate schtick, of course, but it worked.
He will be missed.
I do hope we have made one small step on the road to healing between the left and right sides of the blogosphere. After all an ostrich needs both a left wing and a right wing to fly.
— “Jon Swift,” personal correspondence, May 23 2006
Oh, no! RIP.
Oh, Chris. This is so sad. So very sad. I loved him.
You know, he was funny, brilliantly so, but the reason I am crying is because he was so incredibly kind and good. The world is a crappier place for his having left it. I am just so sad over this.
This is sad news. His blog was such a great read.