A Death in the Blogosphere

I learned from Blue Gal earlier that pseudonymous blogger Jon Swift, Al Weisel in real life, has died. I think this is my first experience with death in the blogosphere, and it shook me more than I would have expected. His blog has been inactive for nearly a year, and I'm sure many of us have been wondering about his health; I know I was. As it turns out, he passed last Saturday. You can go over to Blue Gal's Spot if you want to read the details, but I've shed some tears over this, and have no need to shed any more. Instead let me give my sciency friends a taste of his sheer brilliance, and a link to a post in which he declares victory in the War on Science:

Now that two of my least favorite subjects in school, science and history, are dead, I'm hoping that the Bush Administration will redouble its efforts to kill off two other subjects I didn't much care for, Math and Geography. While important strides have been made, I still think more can be done to send Math and Geography to the dustbin of History, which, course, has itself been sent to the dustbin of . . . something else, I guess. I'm not ready to declare victory until our schools are teaching only two subjects: Religion and Gym.

Jon Swift was a blog that I read years ago, when I was working for OSU, and had to sort of ration my browsing to fit in between actual periods of work. It's been only 22 months since I started blogging, and my experience has only increased my admiration for and envy of people like Mr. Weisel, who make it look so easy.

My condolences, Jon Swift, to your family. Rest in peace.

Followup: Vanity Fair has picked this up, along with many, many other bloggers. The comparison to Colbert is apt, but I'd point out that Swift's composition and delivery was far superior, and that's not a criticism of Colbert. It's a sad day in the blogosphere.