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July 17, 2009

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Benen says he's prepping the Hilzoy Comeback Tour t-shirts and I want to be first in line for one.

And while waiting for them to deploy, I'll continue to read, learn from and be periodically exasperated by her blogging colleagues here and at Political Animal.

A good example and high standard are gifts that keep on giving. Travel safe, Hilzoy, and send dispatches.

Just wanted, briefly*, to say it again --

Thank you. You will be missed.

*perhaps too brief

Thank you, hilzoy. I hope I'll be just like you when I grow up.

Delurking just to say, Hilzoy is the real deal in real life too. Kind, brilliant, considerate, funny. When she left our 'hood, I missed her a great deal as I will miss her now that she has left this blog. I wish her only the best. I look forward to reading her comments and hope she will consider an occasional post.

All the best, Hilzoy.

Wish you weren't going, hilzoy, even before that scene made me cry.

Come back if you can, barefaced or not.

What?!!!! No!

Best of luck Hilzoy. It's been an absolute pleasure to read you over the years. You've always argued forcefully, eloquently and intelligently for what you've believed. You will be sorely be missed.

I am a better man for having read your opinions.

Best of luck to you and please, PLEASE (!!!) drop by from time to time.

PS- If you take assassin kitty with you, I will hunt you down.

Blogging is a lot of hard work and I fully understand and support Hilzoy's decision. I feel the same way I felt when Bill Watterson retired from drawing Calvin and Hobbes: it was great while it lasted!

All the best.

The fact that hilzoy's leaving is taking some of the shine out of my day, but I'm comforting myself with the thought that there's a bigger world than ObWi out there that needs them some hilzoy.

We can't have her all to ourselves, that would be selfish.

vaya con dios, safe travels, don't forget to write (hah!).

All the best -

Thanks. Thanks so much.

(I'll still be around through tonight, though, while I finish packing.)

And of course I'll comment. How could I possibly not?

It comforts me to know that hilzoy is addicted enough to blogs that she cannot imagine giving up commenting :)

Besides all the "thanks, we'll miss you desperately"'s, there's also that trip you're about to take, which inspires the words they used to say in Ireland when I was lucky enough to hang out there but then had to leave:

Safe home.

"And I've also considered Hilzoy -- like Steve Benen -- a "blogger's blogger."

Okay, does this mean that you think that Steve Benen also considers Hilzoy a "blogger's blogger," or that you consider Steve Benen to be a blogger's blogger, just as you consider Hilzoy to be one?

"...you should maybe watch minutes 2:15-2:44 of this scene from Almost Famous from time to time."

Watching all of Almost Famous from time to time isn't a bad idea. It's probably Cameron Crowe's best film (among several that range from pretty good (Singles, Say Anything) to simultaneously over-rated and under-rated (Jerry McGuire, to iconic (he wrote Fast Times At Ridgmont High, from his non-fiction magazine piece experience); he's not in the top rank of film-makers, but I have considerable respect for him as a writer and director.

(Also, I personally have some identification with AF as someone who very precociously started working in professional publishing/writing at age 15, who started publishing in amateur fanzines at age 12, and who spent his mid-teen years frequently being mistaken for someone in his twenties. But that's just me :-))

Which reminds me, I have to do a post about my old friend Paul Williams, who needs your help, and who founded rock journalism with Crawdaddy! at the age of 17, after doing his first fanzine at age 14, along with a ton of other amazing things. I've been putting that off far too long.

That's one of my favorite scenes ever. "You *are* home."

Safe trip, hilzoy.

“But it has been an honor to write with her.”

It has been an honor to comment on her posts. My most frequent thought before hitting “post” was “I’m not worthy”…

And I think what I admire most is just her basic decency and kindness to everyone -- I think that really came through in the comments, and in the various posts around the 'sphere. It's easy to think "oh, that person is nice," without thinking of how much effort and determination actually goes into being that nice. It's hard to be generous in the heat of political debates that you care passionately about it. I certainly can't pull it off. But she can, and always has.

Well, I can say that at times, it must have taken a serious effort for hilzoy to be nice to me, but she always was - unfailingly.

Getting a substantive reply in comments from the hilzoy was golden. Getting a *giggle* was a day maker. Huge f’n smile.

Thank you Hilzoy for your years of political & social commentary. You've been instrumental in creating the blogosphere commentariat that we have today. Obsidian Wings has long had about the best general comments section within this subgenre of blogs and it is always a joy to read both the posts, and the readers reflections upon them.
You will be missed.

I don't think that it would be overstating things to say that Hilzoy is an inspiration to me in a lot of ways. Civil discourse isn't something that comes easy; doing one's homework, and having the humility to pause before speaking and wait to find out what's really going on? That's hard, too.

It's often tempting -- in the heat of the moment, or the thick of a discussion with someone who's pressing all your buttons -- to throw it all and lash out. Not infrequently, I admit that I do that. But when I don't (and I know this sounds a bit over the top), it's because I think to myself, "Imagine Hilzoy having this conversation..."

Silly. But true.

Thanks, Hilzoy.

I forgot to comment on the Bare-Faced Go-Away Bird post, but many thanks for all the hard work you've put in over the years, Hilzoy. You were a beacon of sanity when the country especially needed one. It helped.

Hilzoy, if you read this before you go, remember the ancient Phoenicians' travel strategy: pack only the stuff you need, take all the money you need, then throw out half the stuff and take twice the money.

Bon voyage, thank you, and au revoir.

--TP

I haven't posted before about hilzoy leaving, because I'm still stuck in "Denial". I cannot believe that she won't be doing some form of regular online communication in the months and years to come, the only question is "where?" and "what format?"

And I'll follow her anywhere.

Hilzoy,

Thank you for consistently providing us with your answers to THE questions:

"All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?"

Immanuel Kant

I was such a Hilzoy junkie I'd go read her posts at WM and then come over here to see the different reactions & comments the same post got.

Don't be a stranger, please.

linkmeister: never. ;)

OCSteve: It was never, ever hard to be nice to you. Just to embarrass you back: there was one point, maybe two or three years ago, when you wrote something that made me think to myself: right. That does it. OCSteve must be a practical joke played on me by God, since there's absolutely no way, in the normal course of things, that someone would so completely incarnate everything I ever hoped for in response to something I wrote. It wasn't one of the times when I convinced you of something (that was never the main point); it was just the fact that there you were, a person I would probably never have gotten to know outside of blogs, and who disagreed with me on a lot of things in ways that might have prevented us from communicating, and yet there we were, really seeing where the other was coming from. That was always what I was hoping for, and that time, it really was as though God, the only being capable of seeing it so exactly, had made you up to tweak me.

Except that I don't believe in God. (And I didn't really believe this, either.)

I also always admired your guts and your good faith. It meant a lot. And you were always worthy, at least if I'm any judge.

Jeff: eek. But thanks. ;)

And thanks to Publius, and Gary, and everyone.

PS: I hate packing.

"And thanks to Publius, and Gary, and everyone."

I'm still in denial.

Also, I've implanted in the ASCII of emails I've sent you post-hypnotic commands for you to return in a few months. Ideas will begin popping into your head, and you'll feel like writing them down. "Why not post this, after all?" will then be a thought that occurs to you.

These impulses will grow slowly, but become overwhelming over time.

Eventually, you will have no choice. You will return to blogging, but you simply won't feel any obligation to do so according to any schedule. You will find it more and more relaxing to express yourself without any fear of any need to obligate yourself. You will feel calmer, more relaxed, and pleasant, the longer these ideas stay in the back of your mind.

Even now, you feel the calmness washing over you, as you imagine the most pleasant of music playing, and a beautiful sunset in front of you, and then a beautiful sunrise, as you do not at all think about blogging. You are feeling sleepy now. Relaxed, and pleasant, and sleepy. Blogging has been good, you think to yourself, as you slip more and more deeply into greater and greater relaxation.

It might not hurt to blog just once is a thought that will eventually occur to you. This thought will be accompanied by memories of the great pleasure you had in expressing yourself, in getting feedback from people you respect, and in knowing you made a difference in people's lives.

You will remember this, as you become sleepier, and sleepier, and sleepier....

Goodnight, and see you sooner or later, Hilzoy!

But first: you are more and more relaxed....

hilzoy, I just want to echo your comments about OCSteve. It never has been hard to be nice to him, even when I really got angry with him. (Okay, have we embarrassed him enough now?)

As for you, young lady, as one of those who once proposed to you contingent upon my wife's approval, I wish you everything in life you deserve. And if you receive only a quarter of what you deserve, you will be truly blessed.

To pick up on something OCSteve said earlier, I am not sure what all of us did to deserve to have you in our lives, for that is really where you have resided for these past few years.

I would throw out one of my family's old Irish blessings, but none are short enough.

Oh, and I love packing, mainly because it means I am actually going somewhere other than my work cubicle.

Listen to Gary ... listen to Gary ... you are getting more and more relaxed ...

Godspeed, Hilzoy. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

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