My assistant Marisha, 1977-2008.

A real tragedy. She was the best assistant we've had here in the 3rd Ward since that Nancy Goellner in 1976, hands down.

I'll post the details soon. Keep Marisha's family and her musician boyfriend Billy Draeger of the band the October Revolutionists in your prayers.

Barry G. Johannsen, 1964-2008

I have some tragic news from the American consulate in Viet Nam this morning. Seems that the chartered aircraft that was carrying Wihinapa perennial Republican city council candidate, building contractor and handgun activist Barry G. Johannsen and his small party of bounty hunters crashed somewhere in Laos following an apparent mechanical failure. Both he and his seven companions seem to have been killed, according to the wire reports that assistant Marisha has handed me.

As I believe I mentioned a few days ago, Johannsen was travelling to Viet Nam in hopes of tracking down the fugitive leftist urban guerilla and bringing him to justice. Or killing him, apparently.

It's worth noting that Johannsen's mother, Marla Manda Johannsen, died in Viet Nam herself almost exactly one year ago today under very similar circumstances. She, too, was in search of Dr. Harding.

Dr. Harding, of course, remains at large. He is believed to have assumed a senior position in the Viet Namese Communist Party.

Armitage Hill Christian Church, located at 8402 Gresham Avenue in Armitage Hill, will be holding a memorial service tomorrow evening. Donations will be taken and contributed to a fund set up in Mr. Johanssen's name. You may contribute online at this website.

My condolences to Johannsen's two kids, William Bennett Johannsen, 24, and Safire Strauss Johannsen, 22, both of Armitage Heights.

Unlicensed non-Muslim cleric the Ayatollah Martin Wisniewski, 1971-2007.

Unlicensed non-Muslim cleric the Ayatollah Martin Wisniewski, a local activist, public speaker and massage therapist, passed away of natural causes last Friday at his home in Kendall Park. He was 36.

Wisniewski is perhaps best remembered for his role and later acquittal in the Winter Parade disturbances of 2006.

He had a private funeral on Wednesday, and will be interred at Stanislaus of Szczepanów Catholic Cemetary in Little Warsaw tomorrow.

Marla Manda Johanssen, 1938-2007.

Ms. Johanssen pictured last year, with one of her estimated 17,000 handguns.

I received from very sad news from the United States consulate in Vietnam this morning: beloved Wihinapa handgun activist, editorialist, renegade Winter Parade grand marshall and vigilante manhunter Marla Manda Johanssen passed away late last night in a Hanoi hospital, only a few hours after arriving in Vietnam. The immediate cause of death was listed as dysentery.

As you may recall, Ms. Johanssen had traveled to Vietnam to apprehend the fugitive leftist urban guerilla Dr. Thomas Jefferson Harding. She deplaned yesterday afternoon, made a few remarks to local media, and retired to her hotel room, complaining of exhaustion and what one of her accomplices termed "an extreme and pervasive Communistic atmopshere." She was found dead later that evening.

Armitage Hill Christian Church, located at 8402 Gresham Avenue in Armitage Hill, will be holding a memorial service tomorrow evening. Donations will be taken and contributed to a fund set up in Ms. Johanssen's name. You may contribute online at this website.

Ms. Johanssen was beloved by many in the community for her outspoken views and willingness to speak out on popular issues of the day. I have assembled some links to a few of Ms. Johanssen's best-loved and most notable letters to the Herald-Leader over the years. I would like to extend my sincerest condolences to her three surviving sons, Barry G. Johanssen of Wihinapa, Buckley Johanssen of Lubbock, Texas, and J. Birch Johanssen of Provo, Utah.

• "Is your editorial board run by East Germans?" (March 2, 1980)
• "James Watt: An American Hero" (Feburary 12, 1981)
• "Iran-Contra is distracting from the real issues" (November 19, 1986)
• "Who will stand up for the billionaires?" (July 7, 1993)
• "James Brady: Stalinist patsy?" (March 1, 1994)
• "When the roll is called up yonder, George W. Bush will be there." (October 28, 2002)
• "Your coverage of Ronald Reagan's funeral must have been written by East Germans" (June 11, 2004)

Porter Weiss, 1949-2007.

Porter Weiss in 1999.

Yesterday morning, both the Mishipeshu Herald-Leader and the New York Times reported the death of award-winning novelist and Armitage Heights native Porter Weiss, at the age of 57. According to the reports I've read, Mr .Weiss died suddenly in his home on Gilpin Avenue of a heart attack. This is a shocking and tragic loss for Armitage Heights and for the literary world.

As many of you know, Mr. Weiss was one of the most beloved members of the community. He was born in Hanley, grew up here, and made his home here for most of his life. His novels were brilliant, funny and strange, and almost all took place in the neighborhood. His first novel, 1985's The Armitage Heights Decalogue, was a landmark in contemporary fiction, a chronicle of the adventures of an unemployed writer named Wiley Porter, his mysterious relationship with a Chinese restaurant owner, and his subterranean journeys through the neighborhood and into his own psyche. His follow-ups, including City of Shadows (1987), Rainbow Village (1989), Here Comes the Night (1991), The Glass Mountain (1993), The Dreamers of Hanley (1995), An Illusion of Space (1997), and countless others chronicled his various obsessions: absent father figures, unemployment, crises of identity, and the mysteries of the human heart. There is an excellent feature on Mr .Weiss in the Mishipeshu Herald-Leader today that explores his work in great detail.

Unknown to many of you, however, is the fact that Mr. Weiss was the novelist laureate for the neighborhood, an honorary title bestowed on him by Mayor Underdahl in 2005. With Mr .Weiss's passing, we will need a new laureate. I have already begun work on calling together a task force, headed by my assistant Marisha, who is an MFA candidate in creative writing at the University of Mishipeshu. This committee will be made up of some of the best writers in the area, and will be charged with seeking a new novelist laureate for our neighborhood.

Stay tuned for details! I'll start announcing who's on the task force soon!

In the meantime, a memorial mass for Porter Weiss will be held tomorrow at 11:30 a.m., at St. Amor of Aquitaine Catholic Church in Hanley, located at 3703 South Armitage Avenue.