Death of a Blogger

I didn’t know Jon Swift/Al Weisel well enough to appropriately eulogize him, but his death hits close to home nonetheless.   Beyond being a gifted writer capable of earning the respect of one of his most frequent targets, though, he was a hero of the small blogosphere.  I had just been thinking about how his creation Blogroll Amnesty Day had not cropped up this year on Tuesday evening, and how that creation epitomized the blogosphere at its best.  The precious few interactions I had with him by e-mail – and it seems almost everyone in the blogosphere had at least a few such exchanges with him – were always demonstrative of a kind and light-hearted spirit.  He will be greatly missed, and my deepest condolences go out to his family.