kniVes of the Providence Plantations and Lady Butters of the Narragansett Bay
Contributions
- 1889 — Producer's Tribute to JCD$526.36
Adam, Mimi, and all the No Agenda family, I had wanted to donate for Thursday's show, but I found myself at a bit of a loss for what to say. Losing John so suddenly hit me harder than I thought possible. When my wife Lady Butters texted me initially, I couldn't believe it and as so many others have said, I thought it simply had to be a ploy for donations. I rarely hate being so wrong as much as I feel now. Myself and Lady Butters have been delinquent in donations too long. I hope my $500 plus fees can make up for that. And that you humor my following on how John has impacted us both. George S Patten once said, it is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died, rather we should thank God such men lived. It feels apt. I think my first interaction with JCD was as a kid in grade school in our shambles of a computer lab where they were teaching us to type and though my memory is foggy, I'm pretty sure I remember the voice prompting me was none other than JCD himself. Already a rather old product by the time I was there to teach the kids. I suppose I can understand why John may have hesitated to recommend it and seem too shy to shy away from talking about it on the show. I am now a 38 year old computer engineer with nearly two decades experience and to this day I utilize a bastardized pick and peck method that ended up becoming ingrained in me as a kid. But the fundamentals of typing clearly didn't stick, John's voice sure did. In high school, I have fond memories of seeing John every so often when I would catch him on tech TV. I recall him always eliciting a chuckle for me when I saw one of his hot takes and I always appreciated his wit. It stuck with me. Made me feel like being a computer nerd wasn't a stigma that there were normal folks out there that were also something more than computer literate. Seemed like he had a solid grasp of Oscar Wilde's concept that life is much too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it. Fast forward to 2016, I distinctly remember I was tremendously hungover sitting on the couch and through some freak oddity, my echo speaker fouled up when I told it to start playing some random podcast, the best podcast in the universe or some such thing as they build it. My addled semi conscious mind didn't bother to turn it off and instead I listened. I thought I recognized one of the voices I heard. There was this overzealous guy who sounded like he had a lot of hair, but there was also the other host who sounded suspiciously like he had less hair and I wondered why the first guy wasn't sharing the hair, but I digress. He sounded familiar. It struck me then, crap, in a hat. That's John Dvorak. The same guy who I ignored typing prompts from and I thought was amusing a decade prior when I caught him on TV. I sat there slipping in and out as I yo yoed my guts from imbibing far too much the prior night and listened. Suddenly, enraptured when my, at the time, recent wife, Lady Butters, stopped it to set a timer for something and I was pissed. I realized I had found something remarkable. A huge part of that was John. In the time since No Agenda has become a weekly staple in our house. Countess are the Sundays we have sat enjoying brunch after our weekly range trips, we call it going to church. Listening to the livestream, laughing and enjoying JCD's rapier wit and sensible takes. Often we would have range buddies over after and getting over what they initially thought was occult, they would be laughing appreciating John's acumen as well. Numerous times, John would bust out some quip or some one liner that had us laughing and my dear lady Butters would exclaim, see, that is why John is my spirit animal. He is the best curmudgeon. She had always felt kindred with John as a fellow writer. I can't describe how elated she was when he saw fit to add her as a connection on LinkedIn years back.