I had a very long history with this man who died of a heart attack last week. I will say that he was very much like many of you on this board in that he was a polar opposite of me politically, but he always made sure that we remained friends and he stayed in touch with me throughout his life because he always wanted me to know how he felt, which was with a passion you can't imagine. We never fought...we just discussed.

He was a great (no...scratch that.. fantastic) folk song writer too as far as I'm concerned. He used to practice his lyrics and music on us (our little age 20's group) about 30 years ago (we were all young) and we were sometimes kind of harsh and critical on him, just to get him even more motivated and holy crap did that methodology ever work! You go man! he became Seattle's Pike Place Market superstar!

I want to say goodbye to my friend Jim Hinde and I want you to know a little bit about him too. The city of Seattle (Seattle Times) did a nice piece for him on the link below and below that, one of Jim's signature songs in video..."Raise Your Glass". (he had what seemed like a gazillion of them though, some of which would have had you laughing your ass off)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004470157_hindeobit11m.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mX93wRKpfg