R.I.P. SEK – You Will Be Missed

by John Holbo on November 19, 2016

UPDATE: Our friend, Scott Eric Kaufman, has passed. He was a good one, he was. He will be missed.

Scott Eric Kaufman needs no introduction. Well, not if you know him and admire him, like I do, and have been a friend to him for a long time, like me. He’s dying. [UPDATE: it looks like I confused some of Scott’s own notes for expert medical prognosis. He’s in very very bad shape. But his family is hoping for the best.] It’s bad. His family needs help with medical bills. If that’s the sort of thing you feel you might donate to help out with, I encourage you to do so. I did. But they have a ways to go to meet their goal.

If you don’t know who Scott K is, well he used to blog here – may he again! And at the Valve, back in the day; and at LGM. And he wrote for Salon, most recently.

{ 15 comments }

1

Val 11.21.16 at 5:29 am

I see from Balloon Juice that he has elected to be taken off life support. I guess his family will still need the financial support to pay the medical bills though.

As an Australian who benefits from a publicly funded health system, this is like some terrible, awful comment on the troubled state of American politics as well as an individual tragedy. Nobody should have to face this financial burden as well as the emotional and physical pain.

I have only recently started to read LGM, so was not really familiar with his work and hadn’t really formed an attachment at a personal level (though I thought it was funny and quirky) but I think I will see if I can donate though.

2

Barry Freed 11.21.16 at 9:13 am

Very sad news. One of the funniest, brightest, most engaging and most humane people on the internets.

I gave.

3

Hugh Manatee 11.21.16 at 11:36 am

Thanks for doing this.

Too young to go, and so talented. It’s hard to believe.

4

LFC 11.21.16 at 3:48 pm

Sad. Much too young (though I don’t know his exact age).

5

Val 11.21.16 at 10:06 pm

LGM has a post cautioning about believing rumours, so I don’t know if the Balloon Juice post classifies as a rumour or not, so I will just leave it at that.

6

nnyhav 11.21.16 at 11:48 pm

So long SEK, ’twas a privilege and a pleasure to know ya even if only thru the interwebz
[blockquote]According to his brother on Facebook, Scott Eric Kaufman has died. Terrible. RIP.[/blockquote]
https://twitter.com/greenlitcrit/status/800839196919275522

7

Guy Harris 11.22.16 at 4:29 am

Robert Farley at LGM has, sadly, stated that SEK has died.

8

Jordan 11.22.16 at 4:55 am

@Val, and others:

Its happened. blog grieving here.

fuck, man :(

9

John Holbo 11.22.16 at 6:07 am

2016 is too full of death.

10

Bill Benzon 11.22.16 at 8:58 am

Scott was sort of an OG of the (academic) blogosphere, sharp and witty too. Too young to die, way too young.

those tru gangstas from way back in the day that jacked ya and left nothing but you boxers and socks

Orangutan Ganja – Really strong weed that Asian Orangutans smoked with Budda. Now used as a marketing term universal adjective that has largely lost its original meaning.

Olive Garden waiters can be intimidating and judgemental. The gangster community just took it over and used it as “original gangster” retro-actively.

Original Granny- Old ladies of the future with tatoos & listen to rap music.

OG- n, adj. Original Gangster; “Original Gangsta”, a gangster that stays true to himself and his set.

11

John Quiggin 11.22.16 at 11:52 am

A very sad day

12

rickstersherpa 11.22.16 at 2:34 pm

Words fail. I only knew him from intertoobz but enjoyed him immensely – from politics to culture. Just fun stuff he provided, like him and Robert Attwell’s dissecting the Game of Thrones series in podcasts or his conversations with his “Oldmen Cats,” (who find that they have outlived their human companion ). Thank you Scott, and Godspeed. Say hello to Steve Gilliard and I hope both of you keep us inspired for the Long Winter we are about to enter.

@LFC Since SEK graduated from High School in 1995 here in U.S., he could not have been more than 40. Far to young.

13

AcademicLurker 11.22.16 at 3:32 pm

Ugh. I only ever interacted directly with SEK a few times in comment threads, but I’ve read so much of his writing over the last 12 years that it feels like I knew him.

14

Sebastian_h 11.22.16 at 4:38 pm

Ugh. 2016 has been a crappy year. It’s funny how the little horrors hurt almost as much as the big ones.

15

oldster 11.22.16 at 8:03 pm

He was a funny dude. He wrote some good stuff. He made a lot of people laugh.

Those are solid accomplishments in a short life.

He’ll be missed.

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