{"id":175,"date":"2010-03-10T07:39:36","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T12:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philvelez.com\/blog\/?p=175"},"modified":"2010-03-10T07:42:44","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T12:42:44","slug":"farewell-my-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philvelez.com\/blog\/?p=175","title":{"rendered":"Farewell My Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week and a half ago, on a Friday night, I received word that a good friend was brain dead. During the previous week he suffered two aortic aneurysms<\/a> that resulted in his death on Saturday, February 27, 2010. I just learned of his actual passing last night, mainly because subconsciously I <\/strong>did not want to know more after hearing he was no longer “there.”<\/p>\n

My friend’s name was Al Weisel<\/a>. He was a freelance writer and a well-known blogger<\/a> who went by the name Jon Swift<\/a>. I first met Al more than 20 years ago. There were a few years in that time span that we lost touch, but we tried to meet up every six months or so to talk about writing and politics. He became my writing mentor and inspired me to start my own blog. Al<\/a> was an intelligent, witty guy and an incredible writer who had interviewed many famous people.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the friendship, Al. I’ll miss you, and may you rest in peace.<\/p>\n