Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Jon Swift

This is a sad day. On top of Eric Massa's leaving Congress, I've now learned that Jon Swift, whose real name was Al Weisel, died a few days ago from complications of multiple aneurysms. Jon's mother wrote this comment yesterday to explain what had happened to him.

Jon was responsible for Blogroll Amnesty Day, which encouraged the bigger blogs to support other blogs that were deserving of more attention. While I had fun satirizing some aspects of it, I always appreciated the generosity behind it.

When Jon Swift chose to write something, it was often wonderfully cutting satire. An article entitled "Rod Dreher Finds the Subtle Nuances in Mass Murder" is classic Swiftian satire about people who are so worried about "alternative lifestyles" that they miss the larger picture.

There are so few of us who can really appreciate irony that it's always sad when one of them goes. We'll miss you, Jon.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I must say that I spent my lunch hour thoroughly enjoying many of his entries. I am sad there will be no more.