Name Ashley Morris Role Blogger | Education Tulane University | |
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Died April 2, 2008, Florida, United States | ||
Ashley Morris (1963 – April 2, 2008) was a notable New Orleans cultural and political blogger and a professor of computer science at DePaul University in Chicago (commuting between the two cities during the school semester). Morris was a prolific blogger, commenting on New Orleans culture and politics, often critical of the status quo. Morris became popular through a series of post-Katrina blog posts that dealt with the destruction caused by the hurricane and the efforts to rebuild New Orleans. One post in particular, entitled "Fuck You You Fucking Fucks" earned Morris a great deal of notoriety and inspired an "FYYFF" T-shirt.
Morris was a very big fan of David Simon and The Wire and wrote a blog, along with Ray Shea, devoted to the show. Simon learned of Morris' writings on The Wire and of his writings on New Orleans while Morris was still alive, and has called Morris "a very passionate, very blunt, very funny, but very honest voice about the anger and the isolation that the people in New Orleans felt." Simon later used Morris as the inspiration for the character Creighton Bernette, an English professor and blogger played by John Goodman, in his series Treme, even quoting Morris' blog for some of Goodman's dialogue.
Morris died of a heart attack on April 2, 2008 while in Florida settling some minor legal issues.