So I check my Twitter feed to find that Christopher Hitchens has died.
I shall miss his courageous voice. Even as - if I may put it so brutally - a sick old man, his appearance at the debates and speaking engagements he so gamely persisted in was like nothing so much as a burning sun that had assumed the guise of a man.
With his voice alone, whether spoken or written, he could make you feel as though whipped by a hurricane, or tickled by the gentlest breeze. He was a testament to the explosive power that simple honesty, directness, and steadfast adherence to the principles of freedom, equality, and truth can lend to mere words.
Today I mourn the loss of a fellow mammal, and a personal hero. May his memes long persist.