{"id":41605,"date":"2020-03-09T22:54:32","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T22:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=41605"},"modified":"2020-03-09T22:54:32","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T22:54:32","slug":"r-i-p-ardent-avid-blog-critic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=41605","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P., ardent, avid blog critic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The picture you see with this blog post is of a man who was an ardent, avid — occasionally ferocious<\/em> — critic of High Plains Blogger.<\/p>\n

His name? Andrew Ryan. He and I worked together for several years at the Amarillo Globe-News in Texas. We parted company years ago. We once were friendly to each other.<\/p>\n

Andy died this morning, reportedly of a massive stroke. I learned of his dire peril this past weekend from a mutual former colleague.\u00a0I want to honor his memory with a brief remembrance of his frequent criticism of this blog. You see, I long have welcomed criticism because it often kept me humble. Andy’s rejoinders often were of that quality.<\/p>\n

He almost without fail would respond to items I published that were critical of Donald J. Trump. I once asked Andy why he supported the president. He responded only with a scathing response on the quality of the opposition that sought to face him; I guess he felt Trump deserved re-election by default, that no one lining up to run against measured up to the incumbent.<\/p>\n

Andy and I got into a beef some years ago over something I wrote on High Plains Blogger. We once were “friends” on Facebook. That relationship ended. He accused me of severing it; I don’t recall precisely how it happened, but I accepted Andy’s version of it, given that his memory was much sharper than mine.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, we maintained a relationship<\/em> only when he would blast my thoughts to smithereens. I grew to accept his responses as “going with the territory” of publishing this blog.<\/p>\n

But as I noted already, Andy Ryan’s criticism often made valid points. He would call me out and in a style reminiscent of the late journalist Tim Russert, he would remind me of what I had said in earlier blog posts, which to his way of thinking contradicted by latest assertions.<\/p>\n

Thus, news of his passing today fills me with conflicting emotions. Although we weren’t friends<\/em> as I define the term, I still mourn his death. Andy’s time on Earth is over at a most unexpected time and in an equally unexpected fashion.<\/p>\n

May he rest in eternal piece. My task going forward is to wonder when I write the next criticism of the current president: How would Andy respond?<\/p>\n\n

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The picture you see with this blog post is of a man who was an ardent, avid — occasionally ferocious — critic of High Plains Blogger. His name? Andrew Ryan. He and I worked together for several years at the Amarillo Globe-News in Texas. We parted company years ago. We once were friendly to each … Continue reading R.I.P., ardent, avid blog critic<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1424,2122],"class_list":["post-41605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-high-plains-blogger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41607,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41605\/revisions\/41607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}