I'm not sure if this is my place to say, but if any of you know Gav Ashdown, he passed away yesterday evening. It was sudden and his wife was by his side. He looked fine one day, then he's in ICU, then he's gone. I don't know more than that, we are all in shock and waiting for updates.
I just can't get over the shock. And all the times he posted that race car shit that just completely freaked me out at the thought that he was going to go out in a fiery blaze one of these days and devastate us all, and instead it's some other bullshit.
I'm glad his wife was with him, but also very sorry for her losing him. He kept that aspect of his life quite private. I hope she is surrounded by love.
Wait, this was Fukui??? I cannot believe it. RIP you amazing man. He was one of the reasons I joined the Wonketariat. Unbelievably bad news. Anyone know WHY?
I didn't know Fukui much, but we upfisted each others comments a bit. Smart, caring guy. One of the first regulars I noticed when I started reading the comments (10 years ago?). Vroom, vroom, and dogspeed Gav.
I always feel that way about Anna Elizabeth. When she was here she often said really unusual and profound things. But we have not heard from her in a long time.
I'm just sitting here in shock with my hand over my face. I don't understand anything. I knew his name but I thought I must have something wrong seeing this, because all these years I had no idea he was married.
Years ago, in the Disqus days, when the night crew would post hundreds of links to YouTube music for our Friday/Saturday night listening pleasure, I shared a link to the song below. Fukui replied to my comment saying "I thought I was the only one who new about that song." It made me happy that he also appreciated it.
Of course he goes right back to tariffs in spite of the Supreme Court slapping his wrist over it. He came into power convinced it was the way to twist the arms of other nations and he just needs to find a loophole so he can use them again!
I don't think I have to say it to the Wonketteriate, but discriminating against a specific company (the thing his magic loophole says) is not the same as whatever the fuck his grievance is about. Oh no, significant parts of Canada are ON FIRE and some of the smoke happened to drift across the border ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!
If it's true thatfukui has passed on I hope if he happens to bump into Mitch or Lindsey he will give them each a kick in the he nards from All of us wonkers
From what I gathered over the years, Fukui was a man that burned it hard at both ends like myself. There may have been even more than he would tell. Blaze on man!
Why do I have the feeling that Fukui is enjoying every single one of the well-deserved eulogies he is getting here? This is exactly how he would have wanted to go. Let's all remember that he was a shit-stirrer 𝘱𝘢𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, and he never did anything the normal way, and he loved this mommy blog. Perhaps those who can afford it could make a small donation to Wonkette in his memory. He would like that.
He also cared deeply and there were a few of us that considered him a dear friend. There are things that were very important to him. Please support the things that he cared about.
Some fuckface reporter just asked Mark Kelly if America was ready for a "disabled First Lady." Gabby fucking Giffords would have been a Senator (or more) but Sarah Palin put "surveyor's marks" on her pic and some deranged dipshit shot her. She still knows more about the Constitution and is more active in politics than Melania fucking Trump ever was or will be.
Mark responded, "Well, we have a disabled President right now." I'd have been far less friendly.
I got a call from my cousin Janet in Islip, Long Island this afternoon to tell me that her sister, my cousin Angela, is in hospice care with metastatic cancer and not expected to live more than 24-48 hours. Angela is 88 years old and was named after my own mother, who was her aunt. Her father was my uncle Joe, who was a character in his own right.
Joe was born in 1917, and in 1924, when he was 7, he was playing on the railroad tracks in Dupont, PA with his friends when his shoe got stuck in between two of the sleepers. Think the scene near the beginning of "Fried Green Tomatoes." The train ran over his leg and cut it off. Everyone who saw it ran screaming to my grandmother Angelina's house that Joe was dead. She was 8 months pregnant and went into shock and miscarried, and the baby was born dead.
That left Joe with a peg leg because of course my grandparents couldn't afford a prosthetic leg. It also stunted Joe's growth and he never quite reached 5' tall. During the Great Depression, when able-bodied men couldn't get a job, nobody wanted to hire a one-legged dwarf, but he finally got a job working for the Brooklyn Mafia.
But he got caught up in an FBI sting and sent to Sing Sing prison for 5 years. This happened right before his wife delivered their first child, my Cousin Angela, in 1938. Then his wife died from childbirth complications, so my grandparents raised Cousin Angela.
Then my grandmother died when Cousin Angela was 6 and she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents. Her maternal grandfather sexually molested her and her maternal grandmother constantly reminded Cousin Angela that she had killed her mother. Then the maternal grandmother died, and Cousin Angela was passed from one relative's house to another until she was 18, developing a serious mental health problem in the process.
At 18 Cousin Angela married a soldier she met in NYC who was from Selma, Alabama, and married him. She ended up living in Selma in the late 1950's and 1960s with a man who was a member of the KKK, which is something he had not told her when he was courting. She had 2 daughters and a mental breakdown. While in the mental hospital she decided to become a nurse, and she managed to do that with financial help and emotional support from my mother, who was also a nurse.
However, she made friends with some of the Black nurses and staff at the hospital where she eventually got a job, and her husband had a conniption fit, filed for divorce, and got custody of the children (of course he did...it was Alabama in the 1960s). Cousin Angela moved to Atlanta and met Russ, a black male nurse, and they got married. She didn't hear from or see her daughters for 20 years.
Cousin Angela loved cats, Elvis and Michael Jackson, and she deserved a happier life than she got. She was funny and smart and she loved my mother more than anyone, and I'm going to miss her. And I won't be allowed to go to her funeral, which is a very depressing situation.
We don't have stories like this in our family. Pretty much all I know is my Uncle George showed up with "barbecue" that was hotdogs cooked in BBQ sauce in a crock pot.
Trump on the Iran regime: "Young kids. They kill ‘em. They kill ‘em like they’re … like they’re … uhh … candy,” Trump said. “It’s crazy what they do. "
I'm not sure if this is my place to say, but if any of you know Gav Ashdown, he passed away yesterday evening. It was sudden and his wife was by his side. He looked fine one day, then he's in ICU, then he's gone. I don't know more than that, we are all in shock and waiting for updates.
I just can't get over the shock. And all the times he posted that race car shit that just completely freaked me out at the thought that he was going to go out in a fiery blaze one of these days and devastate us all, and instead it's some other bullshit.
Fucking fuck, Fuk.
I'm glad his wife was with him, but also very sorry for her losing him. He kept that aspect of his life quite private. I hope she is surrounded by love.
We had vague plans that the next time he took his race car somewhere close, I’d show up with my Miata and let him take it around the track.
Shocking. I also didn’t know he was married.
Oh my god. I am heartbroken. He was a fucking force of nature, kind and brilliant. I weep for Gav and all who loved him.
I'm in shock. Wasn't he just with us yesterday?
We need to have some kind of memorial
Wait, this was Fukui??? I cannot believe it. RIP you amazing man. He was one of the reasons I joined the Wonketariat. Unbelievably bad news. Anyone know WHY?
Reposting this so it's on the pinned thread:
I didn't know Fukui much, but we upfisted each others comments a bit. Smart, caring guy. One of the first regulars I noticed when I started reading the comments (10 years ago?). Vroom, vroom, and dogspeed Gav.
So Fukui was Gav?
As Wokey posted above, Gav Ashdown. We all have our secret names.
Not secret if some know. Also, too, he never mentioned being married, at least to many of us.
Yes, he was
Damn!! Too young to die.
This takes me back to when Johnny from Maui fell dead on a beach in Hawaii.
We get really close to each other here, even if we never meet IRL. It hits hard.
Thanks. That is what I wanted to say.
I am going to miss him.
I always feel that way about Anna Elizabeth. When she was here she often said really unusual and profound things. But we have not heard from her in a long time.
I have her email. I'll try to contact her later and see how she's doing.
Report back.
Yep. Exactly.
Dude was gonna tell me where $100 million was buried.
I ll miss him
He's colluding with DB Cooper as we speak.
two bellends, one parachute.
My God, I wil miss that son of a bitch! He was always right on the money.
A true hammerblow.
He was an utter delight. I hate that I'll never get to have a cocktail or three with him.
...or more.
RIP, my dude.
You telling me Fukui is dead, all of a sudden?
I . . . I don't know how accept that.
*hugs*
You, me, and all of us my friend.
Me neither.
Sadly, it's true.
It just doesn't compute in my head.
It was only the other day we were yukking it up.
Ditto.
Someone with the talent to do it needs to craft a wonkette eulogy in Cockney rhyming slang.
Are there no Zoom machines?
That would be beyond my skills.
Daniel, you're up.
Well, dammit. Another one that won't see the end of this with us. Fuckfuckfuck!
I always wanted to meet him. Hugs to family and close friends, and to all our fellow Wonketeers.
I'm just sitting here in shock with my hand over my face. I don't understand anything. I knew his name but I thought I must have something wrong seeing this, because all these years I had no idea he was married.
This one is truly gutting.
He wanted that kept a secret. Ha! Fuk, we will tell all of your secrets now!
It seems appropriate to post the poem I send to friends and relatives when a loved one dies. I can't think of anyone it applies to more than Fukui.
Death is Nothing at All
by Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918), Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed
At the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without affect, without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval,
Somewhere very near,
Just around the corner.
All is well.
https://substack.com/@queenmeabh/note/c-206711820
Years ago, in the Disqus days, when the night crew would post hundreds of links to YouTube music for our Friday/Saturday night listening pleasure, I shared a link to the song below. Fukui replied to my comment saying "I thought I was the only one who new about that song." It made me happy that he also appreciated it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHtAXpTwYNg
Came here to tell you all about my soup. It’s sort of seems irrelevant in light of the news about Fuk. But you should know that I put rhubarb in it because it’s apparently rhubarb week. And I also put a lot tiny little bit of ginger in there, because this is kind of a hold my beer soup. Goddamnit. https://substack.com/profile/1687878-1d57a1d5931d/note/c-299201718?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=106di
Of course he goes right back to tariffs in spite of the Supreme Court slapping his wrist over it. He came into power convinced it was the way to twist the arms of other nations and he just needs to find a loophole so he can use them again!
I don't think I have to say it to the Wonketteriate, but discriminating against a specific company (the thing his magic loophole says) is not the same as whatever the fuck his grievance is about. Oh no, significant parts of Canada are ON FIRE and some of the smoke happened to drift across the border ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!
>>Canadian Prime Minister Jay Carney<<
Shit, did they go and get another one? What is Mark doing now?
I’m trying to remember who Jay Carney is. Press secretary for some D president?
If it's true thatfukui has passed on I hope if he happens to bump into Mitch or Lindsey he will give them each a kick in the he nards from All of us wonkers
From what I gathered over the years, Fukui was a man that burned it hard at both ends like myself. There may have been even more than he would tell. Blaze on man!
We had couple of long Zooms about tech stuff. I am not a techie.
No! Damn
Why do I have the feeling that Fukui is enjoying every single one of the well-deserved eulogies he is getting here? This is exactly how he would have wanted to go. Let's all remember that he was a shit-stirrer 𝘱𝘢𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, and he never did anything the normal way, and he loved this mommy blog. Perhaps those who can afford it could make a small donation to Wonkette in his memory. He would like that.
He also cared deeply and there were a few of us that considered him a dear friend. There are things that were very important to him. Please support the things that he cared about.
Black Girls Code
https://www.wearebgc.org/
And if i got that wrong, I am drunk and in mourning. But I believe I got it right.
Some fuckface reporter just asked Mark Kelly if America was ready for a "disabled First Lady." Gabby fucking Giffords would have been a Senator (or more) but Sarah Palin put "surveyor's marks" on her pic and some deranged dipshit shot her. She still knows more about the Constitution and is more active in politics than Melania fucking Trump ever was or will be.
Mark responded, "Well, we have a disabled President right now." I'd have been far less friendly.
I learned yesterday that she was an avid motorcycle racer and advocate.
Tell your friends that you love them.
Do it now.
I love you, honey. And sending you the biggest hugs!
I learned this a long time ago, through bitter experience, and I do it often. It matters.
Good advice.
I love everyone here in this snark emporium.
Time to go for a bike ride. Think I’ll raise a glass for Gav later this evening.
I got a call from my cousin Janet in Islip, Long Island this afternoon to tell me that her sister, my cousin Angela, is in hospice care with metastatic cancer and not expected to live more than 24-48 hours. Angela is 88 years old and was named after my own mother, who was her aunt. Her father was my uncle Joe, who was a character in his own right.
Joe was born in 1917, and in 1924, when he was 7, he was playing on the railroad tracks in Dupont, PA with his friends when his shoe got stuck in between two of the sleepers. Think the scene near the beginning of "Fried Green Tomatoes." The train ran over his leg and cut it off. Everyone who saw it ran screaming to my grandmother Angelina's house that Joe was dead. She was 8 months pregnant and went into shock and miscarried, and the baby was born dead.
That left Joe with a peg leg because of course my grandparents couldn't afford a prosthetic leg. It also stunted Joe's growth and he never quite reached 5' tall. During the Great Depression, when able-bodied men couldn't get a job, nobody wanted to hire a one-legged dwarf, but he finally got a job working for the Brooklyn Mafia.
But he got caught up in an FBI sting and sent to Sing Sing prison for 5 years. This happened right before his wife delivered their first child, my Cousin Angela, in 1938. Then his wife died from childbirth complications, so my grandparents raised Cousin Angela.
Then my grandmother died when Cousin Angela was 6 and she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents. Her maternal grandfather sexually molested her and her maternal grandmother constantly reminded Cousin Angela that she had killed her mother. Then the maternal grandmother died, and Cousin Angela was passed from one relative's house to another until she was 18, developing a serious mental health problem in the process.
At 18 Cousin Angela married a soldier she met in NYC who was from Selma, Alabama, and married him. She ended up living in Selma in the late 1950's and 1960s with a man who was a member of the KKK, which is something he had not told her when he was courting. She had 2 daughters and a mental breakdown. While in the mental hospital she decided to become a nurse, and she managed to do that with financial help and emotional support from my mother, who was also a nurse.
However, she made friends with some of the Black nurses and staff at the hospital where she eventually got a job, and her husband had a conniption fit, filed for divorce, and got custody of the children (of course he did...it was Alabama in the 1960s). Cousin Angela moved to Atlanta and met Russ, a black male nurse, and they got married. She didn't hear from or see her daughters for 20 years.
Cousin Angela loved cats, Elvis and Michael Jackson, and she deserved a happier life than she got. She was funny and smart and she loved my mother more than anyone, and I'm going to miss her. And I won't be allowed to go to her funeral, which is a very depressing situation.
That is one heck of a life!
Think on all the people she helped as a nurse - and remember that every one of them has a little bit of Angela with them.
Dear God, what a story! Sending big hugs, Méabh.
We don't have stories like this in our family. Pretty much all I know is my Uncle George showed up with "barbecue" that was hotdogs cooked in BBQ sauce in a crock pot.
snort
By popular demand, although some say Syrsky is Ukraine's best general.
𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳-𝘪𝘯-𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘺𝘳𝘴𝘬𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘡𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘬𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/80782
Trump on the Iran regime: "Young kids. They kill ‘em. They kill ‘em like they’re … like they’re … uhh … candy,” Trump said. “It’s crazy what they do. "
Sir, do you mean like the little girls you dropped a bomb on? Do you mean like that, sir?
"President who's brain is a Pop Tart says young men are Jolly Ranchers." . . .
The drinking lamp is lit, and I'm putting a shot of Tequila on the bar, for him.