John M. Ford

Godspeed, Mr Ford.

In an effort to cheer myself and you up, there's this post from elisem, from a couple weeks ago. (Warning: contains the word "mammalversary.")

I know this is a great and terrible loss to those who actually /knew/ Mr Ford. But all I can think of is that there will be no more _Dragon Waiting_, no more "The Hemstitch Notebooks" or _Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues_, no more Harry of Five Points or "Balaclava: The Empire Strikes Back to Highly Questionable Effect" or Chekov's gun over the mantelpiece ("Hang the phaser over the holographic fireplace in the Captain's quarters, Mr. Chekov! Chop down the cherry orchard, Mr. Chekov! Embarrass yourself with Harcourt Fenton Mudd's three so-called 'sisters,' Mr. Chekov! Let me tell you something, Gospodin Sulu: if the Captain ever orders Mr. Chekov to take the phaser down from over the holographic fireplace, you had better not go on the Bridge until the zapping stops.").

Heat death or cold, in randomness or Cause,
It is not how it ends, but what it was.
--JMF, "Cosmology: A User's Manual"

blessings

( Counting time )

We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language. --Tom Stoppard, Arcadia