Quote:
Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
He had the ability to be extremely poignant one minute and a classic race-baiter the next. Luckily, his writing was effective enough to overshadow the race crutch he always seemed to lean on.
I agree. He will be missed. He had the ability to make me energetically agree with him and forcefully disagree with him all in the same article. That's a sign of good journalism. Most of the Page 2 guys bore me to death.
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I wouldn't call him a race-baiter and I don't think he used race as a crutch. He clearly had opinions and I think he saw issues where some of us wouldn't. I also think he was brave enough to point at race when it
was an issue and no one else had the balls to do so.
But, I didn't think he was a very good writer. However, he
did make you think. And I think he really loved what he did. I took issue with a whole helluva lot of things he said. But I respected him.
One story. He wrote an article compiling the best comeback lines he had heard and asked people to send some in. I missed the deadline, but sent him an email a few days after he posted the story on page2. It said:
'I've got a great one for you:
"You need an editor."'
He responded with:
'Good one, [Thurgreed]. But, don't we all?
(You easily made the cut for Anti-Trash III with this line)
RW'
He outdid me.
He didn't try to come back harder. He didn't try to come back funnier (although that wouldn't have been hard). He took it in the spirit it was intended (after all, the article was about talkin' shit), and privately made me look silly by telling me he'd include it in his next article on the topic. Nicely done.
We exchanged a couple of short emails after that -- nothing of note. But he earned my respect for, among other things, not getting all defensive and self-important. That's a quality I can't say I have.
So, I'm sorry to see him gone. May he rest in peace.
TM
