I was a latecomer into Michael's circle of influence. When I first met him I was not impressed. How could someone happily use the name Black Mesa for his company (a great nemesis in video game lore)? My naivete, I think, helped me take him on his own terms.

In my successive forays onto the Balisage stage, Michael provided tactful comments that forced me to look at an old problem from new angles, or to improve my code. In one case, his suggestion to a performance improvement--a one hour operation was cut to three seconds. Our verbal and email discussions on textual differences were riveting, and excellent philosophical exercises. I so wish he was personally at the Wittgenstein seminar in Norway in 2022.

This summer, I tapped Michael to review a submission to the Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative, delaying judgment because I knew his comments would provide the perfect medicine for an article that was, to be politic, problematic.

On July 3 I gently reminded him his review was late. His quick response succinctly captures his wisdom and tact:

I have started the review, but have not completed it. I am determined to like the paper, but at the moment it is resisting my attempts.