R.I.P. Studs Terkell

When someone like Studs Terkel dies I find myself missing him, although we never met. I read one of his recent works, "And They All Sang" not too long ago and really enjoyed it. Here was a man that knew how to listen, how to ask intelligent questions, and how to indulge his curiosity.

I also liked his cantankerous attitude, which was a challenging forthrightness as opposed to a prankster's delight at being a spoiler. Here is a recent interview he did, where the focus was on Barak Obama:

I wish he was more progressive

It struck me recently that just as Studs democratized historical accounts by recording the voices of outsiders, so has blogging to a degree. But, Studs would take all these stories and sew them together into a narrative and maybe that is what blogging could use.

Here is an interview with Studs in 2005 that you might like:

2005 Democracy Now