goodbye, Charlie

Up until just now I did wonder from time to time what Nigel Rogers/Charlie MacMenamin was doing and whether he'd be coming back and commenting some more. It did seem strange that he suddenly stopped, but there's something about the medium that leads one to assume a kind of permanent openness, or at least a lack of full stops. If someone goes away, that in itself raises the possibility that they'll be returning. And I still get regular hits from his old blog, which gave the impression that he was still coming by from time to time and keeping an eye on things. If I wasn't an atheist, perhaps I'd still be able to believe that now.

Anyway, goodbye Charlie, which is how I can't help thinking of you. Your contribution over here was much appreciated. But that was the least of it. Contribution was clearly what you did every day.

h/t Barry Freed

 

Comments

[Chris Williams]

What Jamie said. Bye, Charlie. Ta, Barry. Malcs, given that there's no time like the present, if anyone fancies a general blog wake-pint, I'm in London Wed-Fri this week.

[Richard J]

I'm on babysitting duties Thursday but weds or Friday might be good.

[Strategist]

Thanks so much Barry for letting us know.
I had no idea, and had thought maybe Charlie's disappearance on the web was related to his last post on the issue of "Tracked Talk Back", or some kind of general realisation that there are better things to do in life - like listening for once to your partner's request to come to bed (a cartoon that was on his blog "Excuse me while I step outside" for some time - the reply was "I can't. Somebody is wrong on the internet").
The idea that he might have died didn't occur to me as he was pretty much in the prime of life.
(BTW, sorry to disappoint a really nice spooky thought, but I'm the guy who arrives regularly from Charlie's blog site - I don't know how to set up one of those things that follows all your fave blogs and indicates when there's something new to read, so for several years I have just used the side bar on EMWISO.)
I got to know Charlie through the Red Pepper forums, where a little community of regular posters grew up. Charlie was the motivating force behind organising a meet up of these regulars in the Doric Arch at Euston, which went well. He was obviously one of life's good guys, and had put a hell of a lot into setting up a new school in Lambeth - effort which I think had paid off and had been worth it.
I met up with him once in Hyde Park at one of the big marches of the recent past, and was very briefly introduced to his partner and one of his teenage boys.
I couldn't even tell you what year that was, but I think it was one of the union marches that followed the 2010 election rather than one of the Stop The War ones. But I'm glad that happened now.
Bless you Charlie, and rest in peace. I'm sorry you had to step outside before your time.

[Martin Wisse]

Shame. I didn't know him, but did follow his blog for a while; smart guy, wrote well.

[Chris Williams]

How about Friday, Richard (and anyone else)? Strategist's post suggests a potential venue - Doric Arch, Euston.

[Richard J]

Chris - I've dropped you some emails

[belle le triste]

This is sad news.

[ajay]

Sounds good.

[Chris Williams]

6pm or so. Who's got the icon?

[Richard J]

Alex had it, I think. If I did end up with it, it got lost in the house move.

[Chris Williams]

We'll cope through the medium of mime.

[Jakob]

Curses - I don't think the babies will allow me to get away. Hopefully next time.

[chris y]

Damn. Will be much missed. RIP.

[Alex]

PS, I have the icon, or more accurately, the icon has me.

[Richard J]

Will we be able to sacrifice captured Bolsheviks to it on Friday to keep the watcher beyond the gates quiscient?

[Richard J]

Which is perhaps the longest circumlocution for 'coming down the pub?' I've used in a long while.

[ajay]

You're just not going to the right sort of pub Richard.

[ajay]

Remember, Ivan didn't die in horrible agony on the altar of the Sleeper in the Pyramid so you could sit in a Wetherspoons with a pint of indifferent Dutch lager.

[Richard J]

http://doesstuff.com/files/a/Shoggoth.htm

Apposite story for the night.

[Chris Williams]

Housekeeping: Tonight I am, in homage to my lost youth, wearing a 1980s style ZZ Top t-shirt.

[Richard J]

I'll, er, be in a pinstripe suit with a shirt like a French exercise book.

[Malcs]

I'll be on my way out of town by the time this gets going unfortunately. I hope it isn't the last one.

Many thanks to Ajay for the latest spin on Ivan's sacrifice.

[Dan Hardie]

I'm late to this, and I'm very sorry indeed to hear the news. Charlie's comments were always sharply intelligent, well-judged and often astringently funny. I wish I'd known he had a blog: I've just read the last two pieces he wrote, and I thought they were excellent. Now I'm going to read through his archives.

Many thanks to Barry Freed for telling us about this, and for linking to the obituaries. As Jamie says, reading the obits makes it clear that Charlie, or Nigel, did a hell of a lot of good in the real world.

[Strategist]

A note to say, splendid gathering at the Doric Arch, Euston, good to meet a fraction of the B&T community (the Oxonian & Yorkist fraction, shall we say), and here's a glass to the proposition that relationships of mutual interest built up on the web should occasionally be consummated (with a small c) over a pint in reality.
On this basis I propose the next pint to be one of Brooklyn lager in Rego Park, NY. Or, failing that, in the Rovers Return.

[alle]

Late to this, but then you're always late to that. Rest in peace, Charlie McM.

[Chris Williams]

On this blog, the ID 'Turkish Deep Throat' (currently showing above this comment) sits on the watershed between 'useful commentator' and 'obvious porno spammer'. The text of the comment (boilerplate 'I love your sight') implies it's the latter. Ah well.

[Barry Freed]

Before Jamie closes this thread due to the spam inundation (Turkish Deep Throat has got to be the best spam handle on this blog since ianflemingit graced these pages) I wanted to thank Strategist for his words above about knowing Charlie in real life and giving news of last weeks gathering which sounds like it was a great time and a fitting way to commemorate Charlie's passing. I can't promise you the mother of all hangovers but if any of the schlachtbummleriat comes to NYC, drop a line here and we'll have a few drinks.