As one of the unwashed rabble of lesser blogtopia, I never had the privilege of meeting Steve Gilliard in person. But
The News Blog has been, from the time I first started blogging, one of the sites I made a point of visiting every day. Whether it was a post about
the perfect macaroni and cheese, or an analysis of why George W. Bush's latest Iraq "strategery" wouldn't work, his knowledgeable perspective of racial issues such as the New York City police shooting of Sean Bell, or his predictions for the New York Mets, there was no other blogger who could speak as knowledgeably about as many topics as Steve could.
Until Steve's family put a stop to it, his friend Jen kept the many, many thousands of Steve's "virtual friends" informed about his condition. And while his worsening condition made today's news less of a surprise, it still comes as a shock.
Steve Gilliard was only forty-one years old and should have had many, many more years of writing and of living in front of him.
Thank you, Steve Gilliard -- for your knowledge, for your
recipes, for the contributions you made to the nascent and maturing world of blogging.
And oh yeah:
FUCK THE FUCKING YANKEES.(UPDATE: For a far more eloquent tribute than this one, from someone who did know Steve Gilliard, read Jane Hamsher's remembrance
here.)
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