Old Horsetail Snake

It's a post I have dreaded that I might have to write some day, and knew that I would.

Gene Maudlin(1930-2009)

Gene, aka Old Horsetail Snake , left this world as he had planned - on his own terms. He will be sorely missed.

Hoss, as he was affectionately known, was one of the first bloggers to visit and to comment on my site back in the early months of 2005. In turn I became an avid follower of his, not missing a single post that graced his site, right up to his last on the 24th of February.

I learned a lot from him, verifying that old adage that you're never too old to learn. I learned that it's all right to be funny (even silly), sarcastic and serious and still be true to myself. Following his example, I made many blog friends - and we all know, you can never have too many of them.

A good portion of my blogroll is made up of those who appeared on his. I figured that any blog he liked to read, just had to be a blog worth reading. I was right. The same was true of those who left comments on his postings, for surely they too were good bloggers. Right again.

Hoss often wrote of his humorous plans to make his "pile." He may not have made a pile of cash, but in those four years of blogging he sure made a pile of friends. His legacy is the pile of smiles and laughs he gave to that pile of friends.

Hoss, if they have Wi-Fi up there and you're reading this: you made your pile, my friend.

I'll never look at butt-crack cartoons and jokes the same again without being reminded of Hoss' "war" against that particular form of southern exposure.

He'd have posted the one at the right had he found it. How apropos, a proctologist donning mittens to examine Frosty!

One of my favorite features of his posts were his often funny, if not accurate "My favorite word of the day." Like this one:

My favorite word today is sanity. N., keep hoping. Def.: Statistics say that one of four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, it's you.

When a fellow humor blogger leaves a comment on one of your posts that it is a funny one, it feels good. When a fellow humor blogger, especially one of Hoss' stature, honors one of your posts with an award, it is very gratifying. He gave me a "Perfect Post Award" for July '07, for this post. Who am I to question what Hoss thought was funny?

Hoss was well noted as being a champion of the lowly dung beetle.

I couldn't bear the thought of paying tribute to him without putting up a dung beetle cartoon. I'm sure he would have liked this one.

(This cartoon was borrowed from Kenju,another of Hoss' early blogging friends.)

While Gene feared reintarnation, coming back as a hillbilly, he was a staunch believer in reincarnation. If anyone can come back, it would he that defies the odds and accomplishes the feat.

For more tributes to this wonderful and funny man read the comments of other blogging friends at the following two links:

Peter Holtie and
Lois Lane

Rest in peace, Gene.

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