Hey Russ, glad to see ya back behind the ol keyboard buddy!

nowadays every stinking reporter has a tag at the end of their report positing their position. i hate that. remember the old days when they just reported and left the opinion to us? russert knew how to stay neutral and get to the point by tough questions and being respectful at the same time. i really can't think of anyone as fair or smart as him on right now. you bet it's a loss for news. i think all that work killed him. you know, all presidential candidates had to go through him if they wanted to be on the ticket. he was voted one of the most 100 influential people in the world. i don't doubt that. remember what he did to perot and clinton and chaney? he could make or break a career in one sunday morning.

I tried posting this last night on my next-to-useless smartphone, and the formatting was all screwed up. I was really surprised by how hard Russert's death hit me.  I'd only started to pay attention to him this election year, but I was always impressed by his combination of evenhandedness and toughness.  And, as others have said, some of the outpouring of grief must reflect the fact that so many of us realize that it could well have been ourselves. /Steve

John Donne, Meditation XVII

from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions

Nunc lento sonitu di**** morieris. Now this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.