“almost always the highlight of my RSS feed”
February 5, 2017 11:03 AM Subscribe
Kev, the curator of long-time MeFi favourite aggregator of silliness Nothing To Do With Arbroath (previously) has passed away.
Some previous highlights posted here as a memorial of a more joyful time: bat infestation, pink chaddis, pants optional, some pig, rickrolling the baby and urban scarecrows.
Some previous highlights posted here as a memorial of a more joyful time: bat infestation, pink chaddis, pants optional, some pig, rickrolling the baby and urban scarecrows.
Gosh, I had not seen the Miss Cellania post until now and only found out through Kev's comments section that he had died. I'm so sad to see this go, and saddened by the circumstances surrounding his death (isolated and alone). I have been thinking a lot lately about the sense of community present in the heydays of the early web. How through anonymity we could connect in some small way and how that early promise seemed to herald such a bright future. For me this fellows' death is emblematic of the loss of that promise as it seems that now we're seeing atomization and the proliferation of trolls, rather than community on the web.
Please pay his blog a visit in salute to the care and time it takes to do what he did. The archives are still active and if anyone can step in to repair any link rot it could go on living in memoriam to someone who I think might not have had many other interactions with the greater world.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 11:25 AM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Please pay his blog a visit in salute to the care and time it takes to do what he did. The archives are still active and if anyone can step in to repair any link rot it could go on living in memoriam to someone who I think might not have had many other interactions with the greater world.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 11:25 AM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
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posted by jim in austin at 11:30 AM on February 5, 2017
posted by jim in austin at 11:30 AM on February 5, 2017
NTDWA has been part of my daily blog crawl for many years, and I will miss Kev's sensibility for the absurd and offbeat.
When he first went public with his illness around the holidays, it was evident that things were pretty grim, even though he seemed not to quite grasp the gravity of his diagnosis himself at first. It's tragic that he had no one to help him or care for him in real life even though many of us tried to show support on his blog. Rest in peace, Kevin Gray, and thank you.
posted by briank at 11:36 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
When he first went public with his illness around the holidays, it was evident that things were pretty grim, even though he seemed not to quite grasp the gravity of his diagnosis himself at first. It's tragic that he had no one to help him or care for him in real life even though many of us tried to show support on his blog. Rest in peace, Kevin Gray, and thank you.
posted by briank at 11:36 AM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
This made me sad, and I wish him and his family peace and serenity in whatever is next.
That old truism has sad teeth, and it's as true at Metafilter as anywhere else. At 20-something, you're busy going to weddings and pub crawls and waking up anywhere. Sometime in your 30's you start going to toddler parties and like awkward cheese tasting parties [if like me, you somehow pass The Great Marriage Filter single]. And then around 40, the funerals start up. At first, it's teachers and mentors, and older colleagues. Sometimes it's just people with terrible luck.
Peace be with us all, I guess.
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posted by mrdaneri at 12:29 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
That old truism has sad teeth, and it's as true at Metafilter as anywhere else. At 20-something, you're busy going to weddings and pub crawls and waking up anywhere. Sometime in your 30's you start going to toddler parties and like awkward cheese tasting parties [if like me, you somehow pass The Great Marriage Filter single]. And then around 40, the funerals start up. At first, it's teachers and mentors, and older colleagues. Sometimes it's just people with terrible luck.
Peace be with us all, I guess.
.
posted by mrdaneri at 12:29 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Arbroath was sometimes the only bright spot in my day. Thank you, Kevin Norman Gray.
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posted by oban at 4:24 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
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posted by oban at 4:24 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
. I am sorry to have never seen this blog. Kev seems to have been a good guy. Condolences to any family and his friends.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 4:36 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 4:36 PM on February 5, 2017
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posted by Miss Cellania at 8:03 PM on February 5, 2017
posted by Miss Cellania at 8:03 PM on February 5, 2017
NTDWA was on my daily blog read list also and I will miss Kev's hilarious entries so much.
RIP, funny guy and condolences to your family, friends and many many fans.
posted by Lynsey at 10:16 PM on February 5, 2017
RIP, funny guy and condolences to your family, friends and many many fans.
posted by Lynsey at 10:16 PM on February 5, 2017
Been following Arbroath for years, and was following Kev's decline in real time. Sadly was not shocked when his cousin announced his death, once it had spread from his lungs it was pretty much just a waiting game. Fortunately he didn't have to wait long.
Fuck cancer. Fuck it right in the neck with a stick. Miss you, Kev.
posted by davelog at 6:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Fuck cancer. Fuck it right in the neck with a stick. Miss you, Kev.
posted by davelog at 6:55 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by primdehuit at 9:05 AM on February 6, 2017
posted by primdehuit at 9:05 AM on February 6, 2017
It was one of my daily reads, and following his illness in (sporadic) real time was just horrible. I'm no doctor, but it was obvious pretty quickly that something was badly wrong. One of the best things about the internet is finding someone whose tastes - especially comic tastes - roughly align with your own, and sticking with their blog/site/feed/whatever for years. RIP Kev, and thanks for everything.
posted by YoungStencil at 11:13 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by YoungStencil at 11:13 AM on February 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Been in my RSS feed for years. An ignominious end:
posted by unliteral at 5:09 PM on February 6, 2017
My health is such that there's absolutely no way I can make it to the shops, albiet that thay're only two minutes walk away. And even if I'd made it, I just don't have the energy to carry even not particularly heavy weights. So for the past few days, I've basicallly starved. I had a few boxes of chocolates, but they just gave me indigestion. I've spent most of the time in bed, dreamimg of comfort foods like tomato and chicken soup and fish pie with mashed potato and quiche and ... All of which are available a few hundred yards away - but I haven't beeen able to get them. I feel so weak and also I've started coughing, which up until now hasn't happened at all.Shouldn't happen to anyone.
posted by unliteral at 5:09 PM on February 6, 2017
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posted by Amor Bellator at 3:23 AM on February 7, 2017
posted by Amor Bellator at 3:23 AM on February 7, 2017
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