Meh. Charles, She touched many more lives than you have, I suspect in your time here. You could have just apologized for your earlier quips. Instead, you tried to take a poetic, philosophical view of someone you used as fodder for your whimsical writing.

You should have just said 'I am sorry. I screwed up."

Fuck you Charles.

Same can be said of a pet bird or a nice flower arrangement. Crispy Crust Christ, we see things and then when they're gone we still remember them? Fuckin wow! Give this guy a raise!

Note to Stranger staff: Do not allow Charles to speak at your funerals.

Perd Hapley strikes again.

I love this. This is the best. Always let Charles speak.

So I've read through this and the earlier piece by Charles and I cannot see why people are so upset at him. Maybe you don't like his style but he didn't write anything that, IMO, could be construed as disrespectful or anyway nothing worthy of the hate here and in the earlier piece. There may be other agendas in play, but at the very least one should recognize that in your grief your may have misunderstood Charles.

RIP, Ms Vanderbeck (I knew her distantly). You leave behind a world better for your presence in it, but it's a bit less bright now.

I recommend listening to Amy's podcast. She had so many wonderful things to say. I didn't know her and I'm so sad for that and I'm so sad for her friends, who she loved and admired in an exceptional way.

https://m.soundcloud.com/user-836613011

For fucks sake, whatever happens when I die I beg that ANYONE but Charles write the obituary.

@7,8 -- I know right? I thought the rule of civility was that "if you can't say something nice, don't say it at all"... I guess that doesn't apply to commentards on this here slog-blog. I thought it was a lovely somber reflection.

I'm looking at you "Mark Jones": Using epithets & personal attacks in a post is pretty weak sauce. But I doubt you could do better. You are now on my official ignore/do not interact list, along with Mx. Idiot (@5). Great company!

@11 - Don't worry, that will never happen for you. Also, why do you think we even care about your desires for your obit? Quite seriously, do you care about mine? No. Who are you anyway?

@13: Actually, obituaries can be humorous per the planned instructions of the deceased, such as the woman who went to heaven rather than deciding to vote for Hillary or Donald.

So, now you have another item to think about for your loved ones to follow.

There are some beautifully written sentences here, but if I were her brother, I'd beat the shit out of you.

I find this disrespectful. Amy was a good friend of many people I know. I don't think it's appropriate to write about someone's so recent and tragic death in these terms if you did not know the person.

This is the social equivalent of an autoimmune disorder. The defense against genuine danger is what makes Seattle so healthy. I love this city because I feel I can be anywhere in this city at any time of day or night and be in no danger whatsoever. This si remarkable, not only because Seattle is a large city; it is also a city that rejects the heavy-handed authoritarianism the rest of the country would lead you to believe is necessary to achieve such a degree of safety. Here we are, this peaceful, social-anarchic place where people police themselves. If I were, for example, to become the target of a gay-bashing, I feel pretty confident my fellow Seattlites would intervene. Nobody would need to call 9-11, because the bystanders here don't just look on in horror or hurry along pretending not to see- they place themselves bodily between victim and perpetrator, often at the cost of their own safety. This doesn't happen all the time, sadly. However, it happens far more often than it does in any other place in America, far more often than Seattlites give themselves credit for. What makes me feel safe in this beautiful town isn't the government and certainly isnt the cops- it's you, each and every one of you.

However, sometimes we go overboard. We start looking for dangers that aren't really dangers. We attack self as if it were not self. We look at one another and instead of seeing our fellow beautiful denizens of the Emerald City, and see a cancer instead.

Look at Charles' long and detailed history of thought. We can see inside his mind, because he's shared the contents thereof for many years in the Stranger. I dare any of you to detect the faintest trace of the sociopathy you're accusing him of here. I've disagreed with him on many issues, but I've never seen in him the makings of a sadist.

Don't you think your reaction to his little joke is going a bit too far?

We're all friends here. Let's try to remember that.

@20 lay off the weed.

@20,

Talking to yourself again?