Farewell, Gonster

It's a sad day here at ER HQ. Our longtime friend and ER co-founder Lou "The Gonster" Goncey died yesterday. We met over Thanksgiving break in 1984 and immediately hit it off. A viewing of SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT cemented our friendship and pretty soon we were hanging out, eating Chinese food, drinking cheap beer and consuming cheaper movies.

At some point we decided to create ER, the name picked on a South Jersey tennis court because it sounded vaguely pretentious. Lou had an amazing memory and a laser sharp wit to go with a raucous laugh that was contagious, even if you were the target of his latest good-natured rant. I'd say we were like brothers, but brothers fight and have issues. If we disagreed – which was rare – we'd attribute it to the other's idiocy and move on.

 Our lives took us down different paths over the years and even though we only saw each other about once a year it was always like we never stopped chatting endlessly about movies at the video store, sneaking beer into the drive-in, or catching some band we loved at a dive bar in Philly.

 Take care, big fella. I hope wherever you are there's a Bo's Wok and a 24-hour rental store.