One of the most important functions the Internet serves is to unite people who live on one side of the world with other folks who live thousands of miles away with common interests and goals.
When I first start surfing the 'Net, I was surprised to find that other shared my love of game shows. At the time, it was a genre in decline, maligned and scorned as cheap, meaningless entertainment. But there were and are those who still enjoy the genre as it was, and back in the day, many of them congregated on a Newsgroup known as alt.tv.gameshows. This group enabled many people to discuss and debate their favorite shows, to make friends with their fellow fans. Two of the most important and influential of those who read the group were Randy Amasia and David Zinkin.
Randy was a researcher who interned on the original Card Sharks and appeared as a contestant on an obscure (to most folks) CBS show in 1979 called Whew! where he won $25,000 in cash to help pay for his education. His insight, sense of humor and love for the genre helped bring together many new friends, He died of cancer several years ago after many years of hoping he could get a videotape of his appearance on the show. He and the group managed to get access to one...only for Randy to pass away just as the tape literally reached his home. I never knew Randy, but I owe him a debt I will never be able to repay, because many of the people he helped bring together are now amongst my dearest and closest friends.
David was an administrator and IT guy for a school district in the New York state area. He served as moderator for alt.tv.gameshows' offspring, the Game Show Forum. He was possessed of a similar temperament and love for the genre to Randy's own, and he was important to helping me find my way when I started posting to the group. He also served as an important voice of common sense when things in the real world began to turn strange. But David suffered from Crohn's disease, a rare genetic disorder affecting the intestinal tract, and making the sufferer vulnerable to colon cancer.
Today, one of David's friends posted to the Forum to say that David had passed away. Unlike Randy, I knew David fairly well - though not as well as some of my other friends - and he touched my life in a profound way. Without him, I would not know some of my best friends, and I would not be part of a community from which I take great pride and pleasure in my association. As with Randy, I owe David a debt I can never repay.
Farewell, David. I hope you see Randy in heaven.
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Tuesday is the 11th anniversary of the Dave Zinkin appearance as a contestant on the August 13, 2008 episode of Internet Game Show Community Celebrity Bucket Kickers. Wednesday is the 19th anniversary of the August 14, 2000 birth of Dave's son, ZHIFOS.
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