As a native Oregonian, I would like to apologize on behalf of my state. We try pretty hard, and we get most things right, but we totally dropped the ball here.

As soon as I saw this sad bit of news, I came over to boingboing to commiserate because I knew this group of people would be just as heartbroken as I over his passing.

Like so many others, from a young age I was greatly inspired by his writings. This is truly the end of an era, and the world seems a little bit dimmer for the loss.

You will be missed, sir.

Oh yeah, that made me a bit weepy. I was a bit ashamed at first, as I'm in the midst of a depressive spell and crying at the drop of a hat (uh, yay for bipolar? and SAD?). It was really nice to see that it made other people tear up too.