I have terribly tragic news.....

[JardinPrayer]

I cared for Bandecoot and considered him a friend. I will miss him and think of him every time I am in PalTalk, I'm sure. Maybe even every time I make a cup of tea.

[One Bad Pig]

Oh, Lord have mercy. Bandecoot was one of my closest friends here. We had many interests in common. He liked to send me an occasional picture that he thought I'd enjoy. My avatar is from the last one he sent me (last weekend).

I miss him sorely.

[Rayado]

[sylvius]

one salute to Bandecoot

[Middle Aged C]

I am truly saddened at this news. Prayers to his family. How I wish to have just one more cup of tea and one more wisecrack. He will be sorely sorely missed.

[Sparko]

What a shock to return to. I was out of communication while I was at my mom's for thanksgiving. It's odd to say, but Bandecoot, Andrew, was a good friend of mine, even though I never met him in person. How strange that we can become close to people through this internet thing. Talking and typing to people on the opposite side of the planet as if they were in our own livingrooms. I am sitting here at work reading about this and trying not to cry. I am failing.

I will always think of Bandecoot whenever I see a Monty Python skit.

"Is this the room for an argument?"

[SpinyNorman]

There is a scene in the Monty Python film The Life of Brian that always remimded me of Bandecoot.

In the scene Jesus is giving the Sermon on the mount. The camera starts on Jesus giving the sermon as quoted in the bible. As He preaches, the camera pans away. It sweeps over a multitude listening to the words of Jesus. It comes to rest on a small group just on the outskirts. They are so far away Jesus is a tiny figure, his words almost unintelligable.

The group then begins arguing over the hard to hear words from Jesus, making such mistakes as turning "Blessed are the peacemakers" into "Blessed are the cheesemakers". The argument becomes heated with one man, played by the brilliant Eric Idle, beginning to insult others in the group in his frustration, telling them to listen up because there may be a bit about "Blessed are the Big Noses".

It is a funny scene that reminds me of our dear friend Bandecoot. The man was a combination of intelligence and quick wit. That wit was oft loosened on those he lost patience with for one reason or another. The insult was often quick and quite humorous. Where as Eric Idle quipped about "Blessed are the Big Noses", Bande's quip would have been more like "Blessed are the Gimboids". He would give you your chance to speak, but if you crossed that gimboid line, he would let you know.

I was surprised at how deeply Andrew's passing has effected me. He is a man I never met face to face, yet the sound of his voice ringing forth with acerbic wit will always ring in my ears, especially on the nights we gather in Pal Talk.

Bandecoot...I will remember you always with a smile. I now own a copy of the Oxford. I never finished it. You answered my questions when I had them. I guess I will have to finish it on my own now, but I thank you for making me aware of it. You will be missed here at Tweb. Thank you for brightening our world in your own unique way.

I know you would laugh to be reminded that we will now need another "token" athiest in pal talk. You would laugh. And in remmebering you, so should we. I think that is what you would have wanted.

Rest in Peace.

You Smeghead.

Spiny

[Gabby]

[Johnny MacManky]

. . "Blessed are the cheesemakers"

Of course, the saying refers to all workers in the dairy product industry and not literally just to the makers of cheese.

. . . .we will now need another "token" athiest in pal talk. You would laugh. . . .

Indeed he would. I nominate, erm... Nope, no one can fill those shoes.

One of the things that's quite painful is seeing the likes of yourself Spiny, OBP, Sparko, BabyC, Jardin et al returning from a break to this news. Loadsa and :worldapart: needed all round, although Bande woulda probably just done this :buttkick:

[SpiritWoman]

To memories and contributions of a Tweb friend.

[JardinPrayer]

He always pronounced "Jardin" with such relish...flawless in his french accent. And, the last time we were on PalTalk together, I was making everyone with any accent different than my own say words I thought would sound cool. Theonomy and Johnny, remember "Justification?" It sounds great in all of your voices...but I will remember it in Bandecoot's forever. And, I remember how erudite he always sounded, even when he was calling people the most vile and vulgar things.

We had that special time when we arranged to trade a first-edition signed copy of his favorite book (whose author was a friend of mine) for a bottle of his favorite Portuguese wine (which he called liquid sunshine). I delivered the book and he discovered US customs law would not allow him to ship the wine. I teased him mercilessly about it for months and it really got his goat that I insinuated he was not a man of his word. I hope he knows I let him off the hook. I'm fairly sure he does. I wonder where that book will end up. It was personalized to him...and, oddly, he asked me to have it inscribed to another name than Andrew.

[spiritmech]

He always pronounced "Jardin" with such relish...flawless in his french accent. And, the last time we were on PalTalk together, I was making everyone with any accent different than my own say words I thought would sound cool. Theonomy and Johnny, remember "Justification?" It sounds great in all of your voices...but I will remember it in Bandecoot's forever. And, I remember how erudite he always sounded, even when he was calling people the most vile and vulgar things.

We had that special time when we arranged to trade a first-edition signed copy of his favorite book (whose author was a friend of mine) for a bottle of his favorite Portuguese wine (which he called liquid sunshine). I delivered the book and he discovered US customs law would not allow him to ship the wine. I teased him mercilessly about it for months and it really got his goat that I insinuated he was not a man of his word. I hope he knows I let him off the hook. I'm fairly sure he does. I wonder where that book will end up. It was personalized to him...and, oddly, he asked me to have it inscribed to another name than Andrew.

Been away on holiday. Very sad. Memory eternal.
sm

[Ryokan]

Jesus. I didn't see this at all.That's horrible. Absolutely horrible. Poor bande. I don't even know what to do. I am literal sick to my stomach. Your computer goes down for a few days and you missyour friends...

[gharfish]

I had never seen a picture of bandecoot--Andrew Bentley (Bentley, right ?) I would have never guessed he looked like that. I've heard now three recordings of him, one of them of him singing. I did not know that on PalTalk there was a live telephone conversation going on. I thought it was a one room live chat exchange.

Bandecoot and I never got along at all. We fought up until the end. The last day he posted on TWeb we were on the tail end of an awful fight; it was among the very worst of them all. There were none before that were any more so, anyway. Twice, we tried publically to make peace with each other, but by then there was too much bad blood between us and it didn't work out.

Honestly, I did not like bandecoot. I did not like him at all. I do wish he weren't dead. I am thinking about him often--not fondly--but shocked (like everyone else) and with a normal amount of sadness. It's personal regret that I feel strongly. I didn't feel much of anything for about two days. Well, I felt numb.

I had been continually angry and stressed-out re. stuff going on the particular thread he and I were in together on his last posting day. I felt so agitated that it was daily interfering with my sleep. I was up early to check and see what new flak had come across during the evening/night that I would now have to deal with.

Now this Andrew is gone, and I've gone to losing sleep. That is, my wife could see that I was troubled and awake in the middle of the night and asked me what was wrong. I told her. I said that that was a real man, as real as I am, that I was fighting with the past few days. She can't see it quite that same way. TWeb's not "real" in her mind; the people are all like machines furiously interacting. That includes me ! She can't have any idea what coming here every day involves, emotionally.

Maybe if I had spoken with him in person a number of times in PalTalk we both might have been able to make good on a peace accord. I too, like so many here, might have some genuinely good feelings about him. Seeing the man's face for the first time, and especially, hearing him speak, is disturbing. Now he is an Andrew Bentley, and not the sci-fi picture too small to make out matched with the name of some Australian animal I'd never heard of. He sounds authentically Australian--no put on.

No. Of course he was the husband to a woman named Kara. Why had I missed that ? He was born the same year as I was. His life is over this soon ?

I hope I learn something from this "lesson." I fear I won't. It's so easy to fall into hatred when all you have to do is type some tough trash back and forth each to a nonsensical username and looking only into the face of 'it's' avatar.

[mossrose]

I had never seen a picture of bandecoot--Andrew Bentley (Bentley, right ?) I would have never guessed he looked like that. I've heard now three recordings of him, one of them of him singing. I did not know that on PalTalk there was a live telephone conversation going on. I thought it was a one room live chat exchange.

Bandecoot and I never got along at all. We fought up until the end. The last day he posted on TWeb we were on the tail end of an awful fight; it was among the very worst of them all. There were none before that were any more so, anyway. Twice, we tried publically to make peace with each other, but by then there was too much bad blood between us and it didn't work out.

Honestly, I did not like bandecoot. I did not like him at all. I do wish he weren't dead. I am thinking about him often--not fondly--but shocked (like everyone else) and with a normal amount of sadness. It's personal regret that I feel strongly. I didn't feel much of anything for about two days. Well, I felt numb.

I had been continually angry and stressed-out re. stuff going on the particular thread he and I were in together on his last posting day. I felt so agitated that it was daily interfering with my sleep. I was up early to check and see what new flak had come across during the evening/night that I would now have to deal with.

Now this Andrew is gone, and I've gone to losing sleep. That is, my wife could see that I was troubled and awake in the middle of the night and asked me what was wrong. I told her. I said that that was a real man, as real as I am, that I was fighting with the past few days. She can't see it quite that same way. TWeb's not "real" in her mind; the people are all like machines furiously interacting. That includes me ! She can't have any idea what coming here every day involves, emotionally.

Maybe if I had spoken with him in person a number of times in PalTalk we both might have been able to make good on a peace accord. I too, like so many here, might have some genuinely good feelings about him. Seeing the man's face for the first time, and especially, hearing him speak, is disturbing. Now he is an Andrew Bentley, and not the sci-fi picture too small to make out matched with the name of some Australian animal I'd never heard of. He sounds authentically Australian--no put on.

No. Of course he was the husband to a woman named Kara. Why had I missed that ? He was born the same year as I was. His life is over this soon ?

I hope I learn something from this "lesson." I fear I won't. It's so easy to fall into hatred when all you have to do is type some tough trash back and forth each to a nonsensical username and looking only into the face of 'it's' avatar.

Indeed, we all forget sometimes that the person on the other end of whatever makes this internet thing work is a real, living, breathing, actual person.

Especially when we disagree on a subject that to ALL believers is literally a matter of eternal life or death, we forget that we are discoursing with a human being.

All of us are guilty of this. But all we can do now is to leave Andrew's eternal fate in the hands of a gracious, merciful, and yes, just God.

And, as I mentioned before, try all the harder to become the image of Christ to those that we do interact with, both here and in real life.