Mitch

I didn't know. I hadn't been on the Internet for the past couple days, with work and my trip to BG and WrestleMania and so forth, so I haven't been online to see the news. And then, today, I see a note on Heather's blog about him.

Dammit.

Life sucks and is unfair and horrible and wretched. At some level, we all know it. There are a few things to which we cling to in an effort to overcome that fact. Friendship, love and laughter. Few have given me more of the latter in the past year or so than Mitch Hedberg. His comedy was an acquired taste, but I had definitely acquired it, and listened to his albums repeatedly, excessively. He became a regular source for my e-mail taglines. I quoted him regularly. I introduced him to all the friends who weren't familiar with his work.

And now, there'll be no more. Think of all we've lost. All the hilarious, unconventional, offbeat, and simply brilliant thoughts we've lost. All the promise and genius and flat-out cool stuff. No more. We have two albums, a few TV appearances, and that's it. So much comedic genius that we'll never hear. And by all accounts, we've also lost a thoroughly decent human being who never harmed another soul, and brought joy to many.

I must again paraphrase Mike Royko: Life is unfair. But dammit, it shouldn't cheat that much.

"I'm sick and tired of following my dreams, man. I'm just gonna ask 'em where they're going and hook up with 'em later."