Ok. It's taken me a day to soak this in but I'll add some thoughts. You know for an instant I thought (was desperately hoping) that this was (another) one of Larry's wonderful/sick/silly jokes which I loved so much. Many will remember that seemingly every March 31 there would be some ridiculous post from Larry which after scrolling many lines would conclude with the (obvious) words "April Fools"!
I never met Larry in person, but he was one of the first people I "met" online back in April of 96. I think we both got on sdiy at the same time and he had just purchased a "vintage" PAiA 2700 (I think) without any envelope generators. He asked if EGs were important and how many he needed in his system. My reply was 12 minimum: more if you had a larger system!
When this MOTM list was first going, Larry, Dave and I quickly hijacked the rather small, dormant or rather nascent list. We used it slightly productively for musing and daydreaming of what MOTM might (and would) become: different powerful modules and how we could best use them. But we also (happily!) abused the list with our absurd outlandish and typically sophomoric humor. I always thought that period in the MOTM list really brought a sense of community to the group, but as the list grew bigger, all the OT stuff became unmanageable to the list.
I was really impressed that the "other two Stooges" could grow beyond this and realize the dreams and whims of those early days and get some of these wonderful MOTM "helper" modules out to us lowly users; and then to watch Larry branch out to the cable and cabinet business was an even bigger commitment. And the pictures Moe posted; damn, those guys ARE brothers!
So while I've been thinking of how I will miss Larry, and how I regret not being in touch with him more in recent months, the thing that I have really been thinking of is the great humorous exchanges we had; I've been smiling all day thinking about some of them. All the self deprecation and mutual (Stoogelike) insults we'd hurl at each other in good fun.
I'm reminded of an e-mail exchange with Larry I had in the summer of 2002. I had just taken some time off work and was looking forward to attending a few shows by The Who who were just starting there tour. Unfortunately, John Entwistle hadn't taken my schedule into account and chose that week to die. Larry's reply (jumping to the set-up as I knew he would) was that JE was an "inconsiderate bastard!"
So in that spirit, I am shaking my fist at the sky, "but Larry! How can you leave me now!? I don't yet have enough of these high quality cables in these beautiful translucent colors! And what about the warranty?"
I guess the way I want to honor Larry is to be more giving, patient, and considerate. He made my world a much better place, I should do the same for others.
John (Stooge) Barlow