News-Record.com

If you've ever wondered about the measure of the impact of a man, read the comments about Jeff Carlton. They inspire me to be better.

Jim Young describes a friendship:

His cubicle at the News & Record sat next to mine. In the long stretches between interviews, during the frequent bouts with writer's block or while trying to avoid tedious transcriptions, we'd engage in conversations that could drift any which way at any moment. Frequently they were about minutiae that would only interest the two of us -- what other movies was Yaphet Kotto in besides Live and Let Die? Was there a better villain than James Earl Jones in Conan the Barbarian? Was Sammy Khalifa the only Arab-American to play in the Major Leagues? -- but they were always entertaining. They were talks I looked forward to every time I'd walk into the office and he would spin around in his chair to greet me. Our boss, Joe Sirera, used to joke that we could create a radio show just by recording the random conversations Jeff and I had and putting them on the air.

I realize that doesn't sound like the storybook version of friendship. Jeff never pulled me from a run-away train. I never introduced him to the love of his life. But in the real world -- the one that now has a huge, unfillable void it in now that Jeff is gone -- this is the true way friendship works: two guys, sitting around, having a conversation about nothing, sharing moments that, when you look back on them, mean everything.

Update: Fox8 came over to talk about Jeff. Unfortunately, Jeff's co-workers who know him best were all out working. That left me.