Star

Star Foster died yesterday morning, her boyfriend, Michael O'Sullivan wrote by e-mail. There are tributes all over the blogosphere, because she touched so many points, writing for Phillyist, which she helped found, contributing to Shiny Shiny, Bitter Quill and then her own site, Sarcasmo's Quarter. Phillyist is going dark for a few days out of respect.

Pesky Apostrophe wrote  that there was no indication that Foster, 33, was ill - "just a pain in her foot that she assumed was from dance class.  It was a tumor that she didn't know about and it metastacized.  She had a seizure (Sunday) morning and died of a pulmonary embolism at the hospital."

Jim Genzano, editor at Phillyist:

Star Foster was easily one of the kindest, coolest, smartest, funniest, most courageous, most talented, most giving, most wonderful, and just all around best people I've ever known. She always encouraged me to try things she knew I could do, and I thank her for that. She also always gently chided me when I said or did something stupid, and I thank her for that, too. If the world were at all fair, she'd be ruling it now from inside her dual lairs (one in her beloved London, one in Philly), and we'd all be working for her robot slaves. But, as we all know, the world is not fair, and we have to say good-bye to her. So, good-bye, Star. You were one of the good ones. I'll miss you more than I can ever say.

Matt at the Tattered Coat:

Star was a vibrant and provocative fixture on the Philadelphia blogging scene; she quite literally embodied her name, becoming a star who used the online medium to foster the talents of other writers.

Howard Hall at the Smedley Log:

Well, to call Star Foster just another Philly blogger would be to vastly shortchange the infectious spirit she brought to everything she did. I can't think of an adequate way to describe it to folks who never had the chance to meet or interact with her. I desperately wanted something better to say in a post about a person who impressed me from the first time I read her words, and whom I found equally (if not more) impressive in real life.

I featured her earlier this year in a Sunday Image piece on six blogs to bookmark. I had to convince her that she was worth the attention. This was her profile:

Star Foster keeps changing the tagline for the blog she calls Sarcasmo's Corner. It has been All the Things You Aren't Supposed to Discuss at a Dinner Party, which means sex, politics and religion. It's now Pleonastic Fantastic. (Pleonastic means using-too-many-words-to-say-what-you-mean.)

Up next, she promises, is More Sense of Adventure Than Common Sense. But that will have to wait until she gets motivated to change the code on her blog. "It's a terrible thing," she says, "to be both fickle and lazy."

Of course she is probably neither - just another young woman living out loud in the city. She's 32, divorced, keeping house near Rittenhouse Square with a pet robot she won online and several gamboling squirrels that torment her regularly. She's written about these creatures, of course. This is what bloggers do.

Sarcasmo - a name her ex called her - is geared to weekday traffic. Monday and Friday - "the days people least want to work at the office" - are Linky Bits times, when she takes her readers to amusing places she's been, such as the site where someone remade Die Hard into a silent film, or the one where Elmo from Sesame Street raps something by Straight-Outta-Compton's NWA.

This way she runs the blog, as opposed to the blog running her. "It can very easily take over your life," she says, and she should know since she writes for three others as well.

There's Shiny Shiny, a girl's guide to gadgets, and she's an editor at the Phillyist, a city-maggish daily blog. She also posts on Bitter Quill, a freelance writer's blog. To pay the rent, she works in business development for a local health-care agency.

"Now I put my life first, and my blog second, and sleep and good eating third and fourth," says Foster, reared in Northeast Philadelphia's Northwood neighborhood. "I'd rather do stuff and have things to write about than write about how I have nothing to do."

Her sisters Debra and Robin wrote Monday evening that funeral arrangements have been set:

Services will be Thursday at Campell's Funeral Home in Northeast Philadelphia, 500 East Benner Street. There will be a viewing from 10 a.m. - noon for friends, family and colleagues to pay their respects followed by a service. In lieu of flowers the family is asking that donations be made in Star's name to the Star. C. Foster Memorial Scholarship Fund at Central High School. Donations can be made to the Associate Alumni of Central High School (please make checks payable to AACHS) P.O. Box 26580, Philadelphia PA 19141. "It is our intent that the scholarship, once it is set up, will allow an award to be given to a female student who is an aspiring writer to use for her college education."

(Inquirer photo by Eric Mencher)