A blogging farewell to Seth

by folkbum

I have not been writing much lately. Thankfully, Bert, capper, and Keith are around to keep new content coming your way, though.

Some of you may have feared I'd been Raptured or something but, rest assured, my fat atheist behind is still firmly planted on this earth. However, my output is low recently because I have not had the time, patience, or mental energy to do the writing and the research it takes to be a good blogger.

Oh, sure, I could pop in a couple times a day with a big chunk of quoted text and add a pithy, "This can't be good" or "Man, I hate Mitt Romney" or even "How dumb can Jessica McBride be?"

But I don't do that, in part because I like to think that the bar for good blogging is much, much higher than that.

That bar, for the last two years, has been set by Seth Zlotocha at In Effect. Seth has a researcher's heart, a talent for finding and arranging all the information he needs quickly and effectively. He has a teacher's ability to break even complicated subjects down into understandable and digestible ideas. He has an historian's eye for accuracy and a poet's way with words. And, most importantly, he has a persistence and doggedness--when he got a hold of a topic, he would not let it go until every falsehood was corrected, every permutation was explored, and everyone who read him was much, much smarter than when they started.

Seth was self-conscious, as a blogger, and soft-spoken the few times I met him in person. But his was a powerful and important voice on the left side of the Cheddarsphere. I am personally sad to see him see him semi-retire from blogging, and even more distressed as a blogger who relies on In Effect for some of the best and most in-depth commentary around.

I want to wish Seth the best of luck in graduate school, where the field of history will no doubt benefit from the contributions of such a talented man. The Cheddarsphere feels emptier already.