Monday, February 21, 2005
Happy Family Day '05! (Farewell Hunter Thompson)
Hello and welcome to the first public holiday of the year, Family Day, an Alberta-only invention! Here are a few random thoughts and reaction to the news of the day:
Hunter Thompson is dead. One of our favourite authors, he was an unflagging opponent of 'The Man' and Authority, an outspoken critic of Richard Nixon, the pioneer of Gonzo Journalism and a tireless champion of the weird.
On the eve of Nixon's victory in 1968, Thompson wrote:
"Richard Nixon has never been one of my favourite people, anyway. For years I've regarded his very existence as a monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt the possibilities of the American Dream; he was a foul caricature of himself, a man with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad." At the time of Nixon's death in 1994, Thompson similarly wrote: "It is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character ... At the stroke of midnight in Washington, a drooling red-eyed beast with the legs of a man and head of a giant hyena crawls out of its bedroom in the South Wing of the White House and leaps 50 feet down to the lawn."
I first came across him when I read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, his account of travelling with candidate George McGovern in his failed Presidential Bid. We went on to read The Great Shark Hunt, Generation of Swine and Kingdom of Fear, among his other work. His loss is a dark day for America and the world in general. We shall not see his like again. The Sports Desk is closed.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"
Hunter S Thompson 1937-2005
This week the NHL cancelled the 2004/2005 ice hockey season, after several months of 'Lock-Out' i.e. a players' strike. At the moment, no-one knows when the season will start up again. In the meantime, you can listen to a message telling you how you can support an impoverished NHL star player here.
Amazing story on the Beeb today. Two headed baby born in Egypt undergoes 'head-reduction' surgery. A sign of the times, or just the normal level of weirdness? You be the judge...
Not a Doll
Hunter Thompson is dead. One of our favourite authors, he was an unflagging opponent of 'The Man' and Authority, an outspoken critic of Richard Nixon, the pioneer of Gonzo Journalism and a tireless champion of the weird.
On the eve of Nixon's victory in 1968, Thompson wrote:
"Richard Nixon has never been one of my favourite people, anyway. For years I've regarded his very existence as a monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt the possibilities of the American Dream; he was a foul caricature of himself, a man with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad." At the time of Nixon's death in 1994, Thompson similarly wrote: "It is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character ... At the stroke of midnight in Washington, a drooling red-eyed beast with the legs of a man and head of a giant hyena crawls out of its bedroom in the South Wing of the White House and leaps 50 feet down to the lawn."
I first came across him when I read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, his account of travelling with candidate George McGovern in his failed Presidential Bid. We went on to read The Great Shark Hunt, Generation of Swine and Kingdom of Fear, among his other work. His loss is a dark day for America and the world in general. We shall not see his like again. The Sports Desk is closed.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"
Hunter S Thompson 1937-2005
This week the NHL cancelled the 2004/2005 ice hockey season, after several months of 'Lock-Out' i.e. a players' strike. At the moment, no-one knows when the season will start up again. In the meantime, you can listen to a message telling you how you can support an impoverished NHL star player here.
Amazing story on the Beeb today. Two headed baby born in Egypt undergoes 'head-reduction' surgery. A sign of the times, or just the normal level of weirdness? You be the judge...
Not a Doll
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