For many years, I blogged heavily, mostly trying to build the brand of this group blog. Though I never officially went on hiatus, after the election of 2008, I was so worn out from fighting the terrors the Bush Administration unleashed on our country and Iraq that my blogging became infrequent and the blog semi-defunct.
Prior to that, as the housing bubble collapsed, my employer - a real estate broker in business for 35 years - went belly-up. My ventures and adventures since have not been conducive to the ton of reading and daily output necessary to blog topically. Instead of reading 20-40 blogs daily, I’m embarrassed to admit I rarely read more than a couple a day. For that matter, I usually check email just 2 or 3 days a week anymore. Most of my reading links and communication takes place on FB now, while I take on offline projects for friends and family and continue my search for a job.
So I discovered more than a day and a half after this comment was posted on another blog that had fallen in disuse, that a really good man died last Saturday. Like the losses of bloggers Steve Gilliard, Jim Capazzola, Melanie Mattson and several other crusaders that have crossed the bar, this is a tragedy. Sure, death will claim us all, but for a guy so decent and talented and young, only 46 … well, damnitall shitshitshit.
I don’t know how else to tell you all who love this blog. I am Jon Swift’s Mom and I guess I’m going to OUT him. He was Al Weisel, my beloved son. Al was on his way to his father’s funeral in VA when he suffered 2 aortic aneurysms, a leaky aortic valve and an aortic artery dissection from his heart to his pelvis. He had 3 major surgeries within 24 hours and sometime during those surgeries also suffered a severe stroke. We, his 2 sisters, his brother, his partner and his best friend since he was 9 years old were with him as he took his last breath. We have all lost a shining start who warmed our hearts, tormented us and made us laugh as he giggled at our pulling something over on us. He passed away on February 27, 2010. My beloved child will live on in so many hearts. I miss him more than I can say. If you are on Facebook, go to organizations and join “Friends of Al Weisel, Unite!” It will give you just a taste of how special he was. Farewell, Jon (Al)
It’s the 55th comment at Jon Swift’s blog.
Jon Swift/Al Weisel took a pseudo-conservative stance like Stephen Colbert does, to ridicule conservatives. He’s done it so well that many a conservative was lured in believing he was a brother-in-harms instead of a satirist goofing on them. And he was much more: he was also fair to those who came to his site, treating them decently and fairly instead of choosing rudeness towards those of differing political aims. As well, he’d direct his funny fire at a liberal on occasion, particularly those new to his site who didn’t grasp that he was kidding.
One of his finest and nearly final post drips with the style of his namesake, Jonathan Swift. It’s a great intro, if you’ve never read him before.
Rather than list every mention of his passing - which is how Al would have done it - I’ll pass on the ones that add more to the understanding of who he was. Some of them offer many other links you can follow as well. Skippy, of course, has the most complete links, being that his generosity to all comers is similar to Al’s. (I’ll provide the link to Skippy, below). Both of them took on a handful of A-list bloggers who’d begun paring their blogrolls down and both have championed links to ‘the little guy or gal’ for many years.
First, Al’s bio from his own site.
His bio via Wikipedia.
A 2007 interview with him by Simon Owens, where his humor and decency is in full display.
Tom Watson, who knew him offline.
From Tom Watson’s comments, came this comment from another great blogger - Lance Mannion - who refers to an encounter Al had with Vanity Fair’s great columnist, James Wolcott:
I’ll always remember Al cornering James Wolcott at the Black Finn and haranguing Jim on the importance of Blog Roll Amnesty Day. I thought, “Man, that guy is fearless.” To Mr Jon Swift!
James Wolcott’s parting thoughts.
Al’s friend, Jason Chervokas.
Libby Spencer, who makes the apt comparison to Colbert (though if memory serves well, Jon beat Colbert to the genre).
Ann Althouse, politically opposed, displays his humor and generosity even in private communications.
Another political opposite, Ed Morrissey, weighs in.
In Blue Girl’s memorial, be sure to click on the link to his Mother’s Day post about his awful Mom.
Kathleen Maher describes his generous nature.
A beautiful poetic farewell from Thers at Whiskeyfire.
Read Al/Jon responding to a post about The End Of Science.
Al/Jon also wrote hilarious reviews at Amazon.com and Brendan Keefe quotes him, with his own modest proposal: “that this phrase be enshrined in his honor: “I have not actually read this book.” ”
To that, I suggest, should Al have a tombstone, it be inscribed: “Al Weisel, RIP: I have not actually read this inscription.”
D. Aristophanes at ‘Sadly, No!’ provides the perfect tribute: post links to your favorite lesser-known blog(s) because that carries on Al’s tradition.
Now Skippy has 48 links already. By Thursday night, I expect many more than that, as he offers everyone a spot to add their own. It took me more than 4 hours to write this because I read each of the 49 memorials and many of Jon’s/Al’s old posts.
Finally, if you’ve read this far, here’s Jon’s/Al’s own picks of his best, that he made back in 2005. At the very least, read the Amazon Reviews. You’ll be happier for it.
And my thanks to Pamela Leavey who first brought Al’s passing to my attention on FB:
And speaking of FaceBook, there’s a group now dedicated to Al that I encourage everyone to take part in. The group already has 266 members.
Update: TBogg weighs in, and now there’s a move afoot to sponsor an annual Al Weisel Award For Internet Humor.
