Doggo/Axolotl/Al-The-Editor- R & D - AoV - Passed away 6/16/06 :(

[joenny]

best wishes from germany to doggo!

[brianm]

Spoke to Al again briefly this afternoon.

Unfortunately he sounded worse than ever. There is no strength in his voice and we could only have a very short conversation.

He is due to go in for an operation on his hip on Friday and hopes his other illness will not delay that.

If he goes in as planned, I have little idea of how long it will be before he's back with us. It is unlikely that his recovery will be very quick.

In the meantime, thanks very much for all your messages of goodwill. They are a big comfort to him.

Will keep you informed when I know more.

Regards,

brianm

[pedonbio]

He is always in our thoughts.

[ilovelinsey]

Don't know how I missed this thread until now.  Please forward my regards to Al/Doggo and my hope that his operation Friday is successful and that he is up and about soon.  He has always been one of the shining stars of this forum.

[brianm]

Sadly, it appears that Al will not be well enough to have his operation tomorrow.

After taking a turn for the worse he was taken into hospital again yesterday on another matter and is undergoing treatment for this before anyone can think of working on his hip.

It's very sad that anyone should have to undergo so many ailments and suffering at the same time.

I hope that they keep him in longer this time and set him on a path to a proper recovery, rather than letting him out to relapse again as happened last time. :-(

Thanks very much again for all your messages of kindness. Al won't be able to get to a PC for a while but I will try and make sure your messages reach him.

Regards,

brianm

[HamsterGal]

Oh, no!!! That's too much all at once. I hope everything else clears up quickly enough, so he can have that worked on.... this is such lousy luck.

Wishing our doggo the speediest of recoveries, and hopefully he'll have some cute nurses to hang out with while he's in there...

[TheZookie007]

Maybe the English team's fortunes will have a positive effect on his health...

Thanks brian, for keeping us up to date on his condition.

[brianm]

I can't tell you how sad I am to have to write and tell you that Al passed away Friday evening.

Yes, he was unwell. Yes he had a bad hip, and the infection. But never for a moment did I realize things would get as bad as this.

I've just made some very difficult phone calls and despite repeating the news over and over I still can't believe its true.

My heart goes out to his family - he leaves behind a son and daughter - and to everyone else who's heart he has touched.

For myself, I am really going to miss him...

[Blake Isaac Gordon]

Damn- That's some sad news...

I cannot form the words...

[ilovelinsey]

I regret never meeting Al.  We exchanged a number of pms and he was always helpful and respectful.  To all who did know him I am sure this is a truly sad day.  For those of us who only knew Al through the various forums and websites, he will be missed.  He is in our thoughts and prayers.

[G_I_John]

Ah shit

No, no, no, no, NO!

*wipes away tear*

Sorry, this is just so tragic, so much suffering

I'm a huge fan of the R & D editorial... it won't be the same without him

God Bless Al/Doggo

[HamsterGal]

brian - thanks for giving us the news... I know it's not easy when the news is bad.

My heart goes out to his family - he was a good guy, with a great sense of humor. He will be missed by his online friends. I may never eat pancakes again...

[JustMeMike]

It is about 730 PM on Sunday here in New York. I spent a leisurely day watching the US Open Golf tournament and taking a lap or two around the pool as the day was bright and sunny.

I just received the email from Brian M of Flying Rabbits. I never thought that when I last spoke to Al only some days ago it would be the last time.

This news is heartbreaking for me. Al and I have been partners for so long despite living on opposite sides of the pond, as he would put it.

He was a great guy to work with. After dozens and dozens of columns, he would still ask permission to make some editorial changes to sort out some of my more mangled grammatical constructs.

Though I traveled to many exotic lands, and sampled many delectable cuisines, and partied with some sensational women in Asia...the real pleasure was being able to share some of this via my column...

and all of that was because working with Al was such a joy.
I wrote the words and grabbed the vidcaps from the videos...but it was Al's magic that made it work.

I did nearly 100 columns with him - and the last one (in April) was as exciting as the first one - each column that you read was designed and built by Al - I just provided the content...

Al and I came a long way together. But our travels together are at end. His final journey begins and I will miss the guy desperately. My heartfelt condolences are offered to his family and friends. Godspeed Al...

From New York, this is
JustMeMike

[solvegas]

This is terrible news. I do not know if he believed in God but if he did I hope he's in heaven. A great loss to his family and to our community. I simply don't have the words....

[brianm]

I've had an email from Diana The (prohibited) and she has asked me to post this on her behalf:-

'I first met Al on the internet about ten years ago, when I was running a story-server. When I set up (prohibited), his "Some sort of Dog" stories were among the first that I wanted to publish, and likewise R&D and the archive of that.

Al was a very good writer; his outrageous and elaborate plots were always funny yet erotic. His command of the language was superb, and he is one of the few authors that could make me laugh out loud. Who could forget his St Cat's stories, which were surely his masterwork, written in the style of the classic Bunty or Judy girls-school stories "The Four Marys".

You could almost hear Joyce Grenfell relating them. Jolly Hockeysticks.

But St Cats wasn't his only ouvre. I was involved, slighly, in the VAST project, and I've seen other projects around the web that bore the stamp of the man we knew as "Some sort of dog".

He also wrote under the name Axolotl, and possibly others, but for me, he'll always be "Some sort of dog". I never did find out where that name came from, but I knew that if I ever asked him, he'd invent some phony and outrageous reason, and I'd have to decide whether that was true or not. Because he was a great prankster. I know that, because I helped him in a couple of his jokes.

I'm sad that he won't be with us any longer, and we won't see any more of his absurd and delightful inventions (I think the wheelbarrow was his original idea). But we should know that he's gone on to bigger, bigger and, well, even bigger things, and is right now starting his new career at St Cats in some implausible and outrageous role, perhaps as the milkman, or maybe repairing wheelbarrows that have broken under the weight.

--
Diana the (prohibited)
http://www.(prohibited).com
Vir durus bene vinci'

[The Warlock]

Fuck!  Goddamit.

Thanks for everything, Al.  

[prinz]

He will be sorely missed by all.. godspeed

[Shara]

  is the only thing I can emote here  

[Chimera]

*pours some wine on the floor*
(insert complaining and grieving here)
I'm glad I got a chance to talk to ya dude!

[CarlTL]

Not much to say that hasn't been already said....

[Zatoichi]

I don't have the words...

Namu amida butsu, Al.

[MunchWolf]

That man was a legend

-Munch "   " Wolf

[H_man]

This is terrible news indeed. My condolences to his family. I first began corresponding with Al back in the days when he took over the editorship of R & D. It was distributed on a mailing list back then. (Anybody remember back that far?) I used to peruse every issue, annotate it, and then send it back for comment. Al always responded in a kind and thoughtful way and our discussions were quite invigorating. Eventually, he convinced me to contribute to R & D. Yes, I'm "Our Man H", I used to review tittie magazines for R & D. Recently I came across one of my old columns in a google search and was amazed at the insight and quality of the review. Which, now more than ever, I'm convinced came straight from Al. The bad parts were all me.

The world is going to have fewer improbably busty schoolgirls around now. Damn, I'm going to miss him. Godspeed, Al.

-H

[JH_]

That's very sad news. Thanks for letting us know.

[TheZookie007]

My sweet Lord.

What can I say...what can I really say to such news?

I of course remember the beginnings of the whole R&D phenomenon. I was not there at the creation, of course, but I well remember the first time I ever came across the text-based version of the newsletter. And then the glory days began, when it was hosted in HTML format at both Wren's Spot and (prohibited). It was then that I started a correspondence with the editor of the newsletter. That would be Al.

Al aka Axolotl aka Some Sort of Dog aka Road Dog aka doggo (damn, he had more aliases than Sydney Bristow or Prince) and I started writing letters back and forth, via the magic of the Internet, connecting us, he in England, and I traipsing through west and central Africa. That was quite a time. He had this mischievious way and attitude about him that was infectious. He would match me pun for pun, he would follow through on my more harebrained schemes, he would set me right about many misconceptions I would have about the true origins of certain models, and he would do it all with unfailing good humor. As you may imagine, back in the day, Internet access was neither inexpensive nor easy to come by in deepest darkest Africa, and I tallied quite a large phone bill while keeping up my correspondence with him. But he made it entirely worth my while. And it was with joy that I finally got myself my own machine, so that I would not need to be accosted by freelance preachers as I tried to enjoy the latest edition of R&D down at one cybercafé or another.

He encouraged me to try and put down on paper some of my own ideas for big-bust or BE fiction, but I must confess, as I did to him, that trying to follow in the footsteps of such prolific writers as himself or Plato Voltaire or Richard O Steele was daunting indeed. He never stopped trying to make do it though. With his encouragement, I started trying to contribute to R&D in the form of a (very short-lived) "fashion" column. Yeah, T's Tips, that was my work. (I know you all blinked and so you all missed it. Oh well. It wasn't for want of trying on Al's part.) But for the most part, I chickened out of doing even more. What could my own meager scribbling do to compare with such magnum opuses as the very best of the St. Cats' series, "The Fred Experiment", "Something In The Water" or "Dr. Hooters (UK)"?

I still have the binder containing the printouts of all the mail that was slung across the continents between the two of us, and now I shall cherish it even more.

This world has some crazy things in it, but of all the crazy things, here's the craziest: that I could count a man, one who I have never in my life seen with my own two eyes, whose hand I never had the chance to shake, and whose voice I never once heard the sound of, I could and can count him among the greatest, truest, most generous friends I ever had. And only because of the Internet. This world is crazy, it truly is.

I offer my heartfelt and deepest condolences to the two chi!dren he left behind, as well as to his (ex-)wife. They may never come here to read these words, but I shall say that Al was a giant, a true giant, among all the people here in our far-flung international community.

And in the tradition that I learned from my friends in the African continent, I hereby leave my seat, and shall go outside on this late night, bottle of spirit in hand, and I shall pay homage and respect to the memory of my dear friend Al.

(pouring my libation to him)

Rest in the bosom of Corinne Meadowlark, old friend. You are missed, deeply missed. Sundays will never be quite the same without you.

(P.S.: I had always wanted to know who "Our Man H" was, or what had happened to him. Now I know.)

[pedonbio]

We all came to know Al in different ways. I was trying to track down a guy who had known Roberta Pedon in her heyday; someone passed an email from me along to Al, and he responded with sage insight and kind words. His advice was always sound and, when I followed it, productive.

Over the years we talked about a lot of things, including the coincidence of both being born the same year as the atomic bomb. I feel a large empty space.

[Hentaibee]

Al was one of the best boobmen I have come to know ever since I discovered the internet and more specifically the BE scene. He will be missed.

[Pacman]

This is one of those times where I have to come out of hiding.

As someone who tried to do a webzine back in the day, it was a Al's format that I followed, and doing what I did made me realize how amazing the streak R&D had of rolling for as long as they did was...

I at one point considered him a competitor, hell I didn't always like his opinions and such... but he did a lot for this community and those of us who have been around for a while surely understand this.

He will dearly missed.

God bless his family and close friends.

-Pac

[Palomine]

 My most sincere condolences to his family and friends.  

[gonZo]

I was also a competitor of Al's, and had nothing but respect for his wit, talent, creativity, commitment, and tirelessness.  He was an elder statesman of the BE community, and will not be forgotten.  

My sympathies to everyone who cared for him,
_
gonZo

[b3]

May he get the angels he deserves.

He will be missed

[Plato Voltaire]

For the best BE author ever Al deserves five out of five times five. Al helped in editing and grammar checked several of my early stories. His wordsmithing skills and character language will be sorely missed. I hope that the story I'm writing to dedicate him will be worthy enough.

Plato Voltaire

[Imaginos]

SIGH, it's always the good ones who leave us

Al will be sorely missed. I didn't know him well but the few e-mail exchanges we had were great.

[Shara]

We'll miss you, hope ur in pancakeheaven doggo

(on a sidenote: Imaginos posted!)

[rtpoe]

May big-breasted angels bring you all the pancakes you could possibly want.

rtpoe