Once upon a time blogging was the thing. THE THING.
We spent hours writing and reading and commenting and even having weekly gatherings online.
And in those days there were circles of bloggers that overlapped and intersected and they made up a big, scattered, interconnected, crazy quilt of an online world. Connections were made that changed lives forever. Friendships were formed. Marriages and partnerships got their start in the comment sections of blogs.
I once tried to make a Venn Diagram of the connections. I gave up because it was too much. I was too lazy. And damn it, I had a blog post to write.
Social media usurped the blog in most of those circles. Sad, but true. Many of our blog friends removed their masks, tossed aside their avatars and became Facebook friends. It wasn't the same, but we were willing to settle because the only thing that was constant online was change.
One of those characters called herself Dusty Taylor.
I learned today from one of Dusty's friends (Diane Gee) that Dusty was murdered by her son last spring. I'm saddened at the death of our outspoken and raucous friend and stunned by the tragic way she was killed.
I know that some of you were friends with Dusty. I wanted you to know so that you might honor her memory, say a little prayer or just think of her, her intelligence, her passion for liberal causes and her unforgettable foul mouth.
RIP, Diane Hugo aka Dusty Taylor who blogged at Left Wing Nutjob and It's My Right to be Left of Center.
My condolences.
ReplyDeleteBy the evidence of a brief visit, she was a tough fighter. Shame to lose her.
What a sad, bizarre story. I'm sorry you lost a friend.
ReplyDeleteand some of us never stopped doing it :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to say about the other thing - too horrible to contemplate.
I'm not familiar with Dusty, and that makes me sad. I hate to have missed out on such a vibrant person.
ReplyDeleteI identified so much with this post... I'm slowly admitting to being a blogger of the "old world" - I've been writing on the internet since the start really - I remember seeing the huge surge in interest in the mid 2000s, and the rise of social networks that essentially killed it - except of course it didn't because we're still here. Love your blog.
ReplyDeleteJust checked your blog after a long hiatus from blogdom myself - saw your post about Dusty. So sad. I'd heard about what happened through Billie Teta (Betmo). Don't know whether you followed Sometimes Saintly Nick, but sadly he passed away from complications of prostate cancer a couple of months ago. Our old blogging circle gets smaller....
ReplyDelete