>> "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" - Hunter Thompson (Gonzo) RIP 2/19/05 <<

What a shame. Over time the gonzo, wild man image -- fostered in large part by Thompson himself -- took precedence and obscured the fact that he was a first rate reporter and writer. If you read some of his older political reporting, especially if you look past the flash and dazzle he liked to toss his fans who wanted that kind of thing, those were articles and books about any reporter would have been proud to have written.

When I was in college he made an appearance on campus. This was in the mid 1970s, when college campuses were about the same as the wild and crazy 60s, minus the grenades in back pockets. The crowd, a large one, was about evenly divided between journalism majors and recreational drug users who received Thompson as a patron saint. Near the beginning of the talk someone in the audience tossed something to Thompson, which he deftly caught. "It's an amyl, man," he said. (Actually he characterized the amyl nitrate capsule with one of those -ing adjectives which would not be appropriate here). He downed the amyl and continued his talk. It was really more of a performance than a lecture. He was giving people what they wanted from him, I suppose. In light of the way things turned out you wonder what price he paid for inhabiting that role. I suspect he was a much shyer and less wild person than the gonzo persona.

Mike