Author: Bob Benz

The check I mailed to the Feds on Tuesday was enought to buy 1/518 of a Patriot missile. As I dropped my return into the mail slot, I imagined the stacks of Iraqi bodies I helped create, the financial opportunities for Dick Cheney and Haliburton I’d made possible, the oil company property safeguarded by my money. (Strains of Lee Greenwood’s “I’m Proud to Be An American” swell, then fade.)

I learned yesteday that a good friend died recently. Paul Pershing was an incredible, fascinating guy. He’d toured the country with a rock band. Didn’t lack for journalistic chops. And he was a prototypical computer geek. He’s the one who turned me on to HTML back in 1994, when it was completely incomprehensible to me. Paul was patient, and together we figured out how to write the code it would take to put the Rocky Mountain News on the Web.

When I heard yesterday that he’d died, I started searching google to see if I could find an obit or something. I didn’t find one then, but I did find a slew of Usenet posts he made dating back to 1989. It’s so strange to read these posts now, knowing he’s dead but that his words live on in cyberspace.

I learned a lot from you, Paul, and I’ll never forget you. Rest in peace, old buddy.

BTW: During the Google search, I also found a Rocky article about when we launched the site.

Looks like those wacky evangelical Christians are gearing up for a new crusade. This could be where it gets interesting …