One reason I love blogs

I'm still amazed every time I find a link to news via a blog that I would never have heard about otherwise. It seems when we find a set of blogs we read regularly, we are linking ourselves to people who know people, or something about the world, that we want to know.

I don't know Doc Searls, and he doesn't know me, but he continually sends me to news I want to know. Friday (and I somehow missed this then) he linked to a blog posting from an old college friend who noted the passing of another college acquaintance from 40 years ago, James McClarty.
Well, I knew Jim McClarty, briefly, too, 30 years ago in Black Mountain, NC, where he had returned after spending time in Africa. As a photographer, he was interested in documenting folklife in the Appalachians. I was too, and we did some interviews/photo shoots for possible magazine articles. They never came together, after McClarty headed back to Camden, Maine, another of his hangouts, where he died a week or so ago kayaking the St. George River.

I'm thankful to have gotten to read more about this man's amazing life, and to be reminded of some of the times in Black Mountain, and the legendary 'White House', a party center for some of our friends there, and where we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

It's not the first, or last, time I've gotten to hear about people I once knew. I'm also thankful to Bob Norman of The Daily Pulp for letting me know that Doris Mansour had died. She was the long-time office manager and copy editor of The Miami Herald's Tropic magazine, and a wonderful lady. I would have missed The Herald's obit, a lovely piece by John Dorschner.