The death of local restaurant reviewer/online personality Patrick Jacobs
Mike Kennedy
I've been thinking about Patrick almost non-stop since yesterday morning, and I feel a bit like a
poser in doing so. Maybe because he was young and this was so sudden his death hit like a
hammer. I honestly didn't know him well enough to call him a close friend, but like so many
others who are paying tribute through social media, the guy was just fundamentally
approachable. I loved reading his writing, and I loved seeing him and chatting him up when we
crossed paths, which was probably three or four times a year in person, and far more than that
here on HBO.
He won me over completely when he was one of the local judges at a American Idol-type talent
show a few years ago in Coeur d'Alene. He gave every one of those amateur entertainers a
sincere, honest, but gentle and encouraging review no matter their level of actual merit.
The rest of us involved were sincere, but we also played the ham and tried to get the best comic
line off to make the crowd laugh. Patrick was soft-spoken and focused entirely on those folks
who were putting it all out there and vulnerable on that stage. He made them feel better for
simply trying and gave them something tangible to work with about their act. He was smart and
he cared.
It seemed like you always walked away from an encounter with Patrick just a little bit more
amused, educated, or simply smiling more than before you saw him. That's a gift he had which
I'm going to miss.