The screenshot is from Cathy’s appearance on the Dennis Miller show in May 2005. Re-reading Cathy’s post on her tangle with Larry O’Scary made me laugh out loud all over again. I imagine Cathy provoked the reaction pictured above–vein-popping, fist-clenching unhingedness–in a lot of her targets who were smart enough not to sit next to her in front of a camera. Starting with the LA Times and assorted “old farts.”

Though I never met her, we traded a few mutual admiration e-mails over the years. I appreciated her ferocity and feistiness, her ability to bridge the conservative/libertarian divide, and her love for her daughter.

She will be missed. Her daughter, Maia, blogs:

As you may have heard
posted 03/21/07 (edited Wednesday, Mar 21, 2007 17:47)

My mother passed away three hours ago. Its on the homespace of JournalSpace and the official obit is here.

Funeral service will be held Friday at 10AM. In addition to the humane society, I also want to acknowledge the Lung Cancer Alliance previous mentioned before. Lung Cancer Alliance. I got an email from them explaining that one of their goals is not to represent patients in a stigmatized away. Not all lung cancer patients were smokers. My mother was frustrated on her blog that there is more funding for the more popular diseases of breast cancer, AIDS etc which have more hope than lung cancer which is a harder way to go.

Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Mt. Sinai Hollywood Hills, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles. Instead of flowers, Seipp had requested that people make donations to the Humane Society, www.hsus.org.

The outpouring of well-wishers on the Internet is remarkable. Those of you who may not be long-time blogosphere denizens might be scratching your heads wondering what all the fuss is about. No, she wasn’t a soldier killed in action or a career public servant. But she was a journalist who made a difference and a blogger who made a mark.

John O’Sullivan pays tribute: “If Raymond Chandler had been reincarnated in 1990s L.A. as a girl with a can-do attitude, the result would have been someone like Cathy Seipp (and not very like Raymond Chandler.)…May she rest in peace. May Maia receive some consolation from the outpouring of respectful affection for her mother. And may mainstream American journalism learn to make better use of such unorthodox talents.”

The LA Times obituary is here. Many tributes at The Corner. Some of her close friends, who have more links: Amy Alkon - Jackie Danicki - Luke Ford - Moxie.

More remembrances: Kathryn Lopez. Jim Treacher. Allah. Justin Levine. Patterico. Memeorandum.

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