I met Nigel Gooding this morning by way of a comment he left regarding the blog post about men being twice as likely to die of cancer than women. As a man, he found the study to be a patronizing generalization that might be factually incorrect. As I am normally allergic to patronization and generalization myself, I took as second look at the study and the way the post presented the information. Because his entire comment was both fair and intelligent in the points he had to make, I emailed Nigel with my take on it, and then went for a visit to read his blog. Gooding is a 42, single, co-father of Will and Ellen, and a throat cancer survivor who blogs The Ferryman's Column. He describes his blog as, "a quirky, light hearted approach which documented my treatment, and now recovering and living with a cancer that kills one in two people that get it."

Gooding's last post is in regard to the bird flu and cancer, that starts out with "It has been a few days since I posted and no I have not been rounding up dead swans in an attempt to rid the World of bird flu." Before I read further, I knew I was going to enjoy his writing and I was going to like this person. He describes the fundraising marathon he was gearing up for and participated in, as well as his observations and thoughts about life in general. In my opinion, the single best aspect of the blogosphere is in the connections you can make, and in the people you find. Gooding may describe his blog as quirky and lighthearted -- I would add delightful, insightful, inspirational and real. The Ferryman's Column is on my short list of blogs to read now.