Received this comment today:

Flo's famous phrase was actually "Go With Flo"
not "Going with Flo" (or "Going with the Flo" as i have seen on some folk's FB pages).
I don't mean to be picky, but Flo was pretty adament about this. Robin, perhaps you could just change the text on the main page on this blog (whenever you have the time). changing it's adddress would be too much at this point and i really want people to be able to find the site as they bookmarked it. thank you so much for all the work you have done here. this is a great resource for those who don't use FB and i read it every day. ...Clara Jane Timme


I want to clear a couple of things up with this. When I started the blog right after Flo died, the first URL I tried to snag was gowithflo.blogspot.com but it was already taken by someone who wrote one entry only- I presume our Flo, or another person with the same name. So I thought about it for awhile, and tried to decide what the best way to honor him would be. I wanted to keep the tense present (i.e. no "We Went With Flo"). I also wanted to use something that symbolizes both a sense of community for all of us all over the place who knew him but didn't know each other, and of continuing on with Flo throughout his journey after his passing. I decided that I wouldn't feel okay about co-opting his phrase word for word. All of the websites that use "Go With Flo"- his homepage, his Mac site, his journal, etc- are his. They are galleries of his art, or his thoughts put into words, or his photographs, or his grand, beautiful plans for the future.

Sadly, Flo doesn't have any creative input into this blog; his passing is the only reason that it exists. I think it's important that Flo's phrase, in its exact form, go with him in some way, or live on exactly the way he used it. I don't think it's right to take it word for word. Our job is to make something of "Go With Flo", not post it all over this blog and turn it into something that's not exactly him. Besides, we aren't trying to implore people to go with him; we're telling each other and the world that we are already doing that.

The last thing I want to say about it is that I'm kind of (not hugely, just kind of) offended that someone would think that I would know Flo well enough to do all of this work after his death, but not know what his exact phrase was. I saw it every day in my gchat list, on my Livejournal friends list, in my webpage bookmarks, whatever. I had his number saved in my phone as "Go With Flo", and the first voicemail saved in my phone is from when he called me on my birthday three weeks ago- so when I listen to it all the way through it says "message from: GEOOOWEWEETHFLOOWE on: january 1st" in this funny computer voice. And besides all this technical mumbo jumbo, "Go With Flo" was just one of those things that I always thought of when I thought of Flo. I would wonder what Flo was doing, or remember that it had been a few weeks since we had emailed, and "Go With Flo" would pop right into my head. I love Flo very much, and part of loving someone is being very familiar with the work that they do, how they identify themselves, et cetera. "Go With Flo" WAS Flo.

So while Flo was rightfully adamant about people getting his phrase right, I am adamant about not taking it from him now that he can't use it in this world. I am going to leave things the way they are. I hope this clears up any confusion people may have about this issue.

Nothing But Love,
Robin