I first met Cary in 1986. I remember being struck by how soft-spoken he was, for such a tall person. Actually, he seemed soft-spoken and opinionated at the same time. And, of course, he was a geek's geek. He could delve into the finer points of the Mac (and Apple II's) as no one else I knew. I was still pretty much of a cub reporter at Business Week back then, and Cary supplied me with one of the few genuine scoops I've ever laid claim to. He had the goods on the Apple IIGS, and I hammered on him long enough that he finally gave me the machine's specs. And when he started General Information, it seemed such a good idea to me (and wasn't it, though?), I wrote up a little item for the magazine, which got spiked by some very un-visionary editors.
When I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, he was weak, but we had a good laugh about all that old stuff. So it came as some surprise when I learned about Cary's other sides: the side that had been at Children's Television Workshop (doing a science show, of course :-), and his love of children in general. When Meredith was born, I saw the gentle, engaged way Cary and Ellen interacted with her, and I thought to myself, "I want a little girl just like her." I do have a little girl now, and I have Cary to thank for inspiring me to take that plunge. I have Cary to thank for sending a book project my way, and I have Cary to thank for never stopping being my friend, when it would have been easy to do just that.