The passing of the torch

Two respected writers passed away this week and left behind holes that will be challenging to fill. They presented all of us with the best of what the internet should provide.

Robert Guskind, proprietor of the Gowanus Lounge did not think of himself as a blogger but rather as an online journalist, a distinction that was real for anyone who ever walked in to the lounge and paused to quaff a thought or two. The Lounge will stay open for a while to allow others to post their rememberances. I refer you to a tribute posted by my daughter to her own site. Guskind knew his subject, Brooklyn, very well and wrote with passion.

Johnnie Rook was the nom de blog of Steven Kimball. It was a name chosen well for all of it's dark Shakespearean connotations. His subject was none other than the murder of our climate as laid out in the Climaticide Chronicles. He wrote about one death with the understanding that came from staring his own imminent death in the face.

Both of these men had a passion for their subject, gave it a sense of importance that may have escaped the rest of us. Both had a reverence for getting the facts right and were often critical of those journalistic efforts that failed to live up to their own standard. We owe it to both to continue that tradition, to speak with passion secure in the knowledge that we too, got the facts right.