Dave Consiglio says in his answer:
I’m having an “I love you guys” moment, and I really mean it.
I’ve had three blog posts of them, naming 45 people:
- I love youse guys by Nick Nicholas on Opɯdʒɯlɯklɑr In Exile
- I love youse guys #2 by Nick Nicholas on Opɯdʒɯlɯklɑr In Exile
- I love youse women by Nick Nicholas on Opɯdʒɯlɯklɑr In Exile
And there will be more.
I also don’t like singling out some people as more special than others. But, overwhelmed as I have been today by the question about me, I feel that I need to say—once again—that there are people here who I have bound to myself tight.
I am not making this a huge list, and I don’t want people left out to feel left out; but the question is asking something specific. So.
You know those old cartoon depictions of an angel on one shoulder, and a devil on the other?
These guys are both angels for me: both set for me standards of behaviour to admire from afar, if not to emulate. One just gets the devil role because of his A2As.
McKayla Kennedy. Jeremy Markeith Thompson. They followed me within a day of each other. I got a chill seeing both of them follow me. I thank them for who they are. And they are less dissimilar than they might think. They both have a quiet, considered, decent integrity to them, that I am glad has not passed from the Earth.
There are many people I smile at with recognition and kindliness, whenever I see them here. A few more than most.
- Gigi J Wolf, the madcap teller of tales.
- Habib Fanny, quick wit and quicker mind, who laughs at all life’s folly.
- Clarissa Lohr, my fencing partner in ethics and politics, who makes me better.
- Pegah Esmaili, the person I’d most like to genocide me. (Thank you for that question again, canım.)
- Mary C. Gignilliat, Gorgeous Mez, who gives joy and should get nothing but joy back.
- Edward Conway, the gentlest respondent here on Quora (as long as you’ve blocked Games of Thrones).
- EDIT: Fuck! Forgot! Zeibura S. Kathau and Audrey Ackerman and Brian Collins. My linguistics partners.
Manos Eleftheriou, the guy who actually deserves the Nobel prize for song lyrics, got together with that old misery-guts composer Stavros Kouyioumtzis, God rest him, and that whiny-voiced singer of self-important songs George Dalaras (yes, I love all three); and they did a song I heard at 13, and which (like so many songs I heard in my teens) has stayed with me.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=MyB_ZoYDRuA
You spoke a kind word
and I kneeled to the ground
and the rock gave forth water
for my soul to drink.
Whoever sings of pain
will not perish in this life
and one friend in the world
will stand by him.
These people have stood by me as I have sung of pain, and spoken me a kind word.
- Michael Masiello. My master and confrere.
- Dimitra Triantafyllidou. The annoying northerner cousin I’ve always wished I had.
- Robert Todd. Whose kindness and support clicked just so naturally.
And last and most:
- Sam Murray. I thank you every exchange we have, Sam. And I mean to keep on thanking you. You keep giving me good reason to.
EDIT:
- Tracey Bryan as well. As I tell both you and Sam: there’s plenty of misery and dysfunction to go around for the both of you.