The Sports Racer legacy

Yesterday the Internet lost one of its crown jewels. Head over to The Show to pay your last respects.

Ze is certainly going on to bigger and better things. I predict we'll see him in Hollywood someday. But The Show leaves behind quite a legacy:

• Ze commissioned teams of his followers to construct an Earth Sandwich using two pieces of bread placed on opposite ends of the planet, and succeeded. (And landed on NPR.)
  
• He challenged the viewers to a chess game in which they would use a Wiki to bring the combined efforts of the community. He lost, and he and Jonathan Coulton performed (really great) renditions of his various songs as a reward.
• After hearing a song some guy named Ray made for his daughter, he had viewers remix the song. Then the mob tracked down Ray, and Ze flew to him to present the best remixes in person.
• Somebody traveled across the United States during spring break last year using only Ze's viewing audience for travel and lodging.
  
• Many, many concise and insightful analyses of various subjects, including branding, the decentralization of media, the creative process, Midwestern politeness, national unity, videoblogging, being thankful, and on and on.
  

And of course, there's the general accomplishment of producing a show with humor, news, commentary, and random strange bits all rolled into one, five days a week, for a year.

The Show, and the resulting forum and social network, demonstrated the best of what can happen when strangers connect through the Internet, in the non-creepy sense. Although I wasn't a big part of that community, it impressed me even as an observer. Thanks, Ze.