Hunter S. Thompson, former sportswriter, has died

[WilliamPitt]

Moment of silence please.

[Kali]

1. No.

Really? jeez. Oh man.

[WilliamPitt]

3. Check GD and the Lounge

[Erika]

2. How about a moment of outrage

on his behalf against Bush's inhumanity?

[NVMojo]

4. Amen....

[givemebackmycountry]

5. He was MUCH more than a sportswriter...

He was one of the most controversial political voices of the last 50 years.

Calling him a "sportswriter" is like calling Jordan a "basketball player".

[WilliamPitt]

7. He got his start as a sports writer

So...

Jordan started with a busted hoop in someone's driveway. Same thing. HST's last steady gig was on ESPN's Page 2. You always go home again, even when you can't.

[givemebackmycountry]

9. Will, I didn't know that!

I picked up on the good doctor right around his "Hells Angels" book and of course the "Fear and Loathing" series.

Wasn't he in the Air Force for awhile, and discharged for some ill behavior?

Thanks for slapping me down.
I deserved it.

I love your work and and I'm the first to admit when I am wrong.

:shrug:

[WilliamPitt]

10. Dig it

Hunter Stockton Thompson was born in Louisville, Ky, on July 18, 1939, the son of an insurance agent. He was educated in the public school system and joined the United States Air Force after high school. There, he was introduced to journalism, covering sports for an Air Force newspaper at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. He was honorably discharged in 1958 and then worked a series of jobs writing for small-town newspapers.

It was in the heat of deadline that gonzo journalism was born while he was writing a story about the Kentucky Derby for Scanlan's magazine, he recounted years later in an interview in Playboy magazine.

"I'd blown my mind, couldn't work," he told Playboy. "So finally I just started jerking pages out of my notebook and numbering them and sending them to the printer. I was sure it was the last article I was ever going to do for anybody."

Instead, he said, the story drew raves and he was inundated with letters and phone calls from people calling it "a breakthrough in journalism," an experience he likened to "falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool of mermaids."

http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/books/21hunter.html&OQ=hp&OP=dfcd2c/Q51YQ5DIQ51tkQ25gnkk-Q3FQ51Q3F!!0Q51!Q3FQ51Q3F{Q51IkkfgQ51Q3F{X|e-Q5DncX-Tq

P.S. I didn't mean to 'slap you down.' If you took it that way, I apologize. I'm feeling a little raw tonight.

[slay]

6. A true fucking individual

I don't even know what to say. My favorite writer. He will be missed.

[NationalEnquirer]

25. Whoa, I just heard this!

Was out of the news loop for a few days. What happened to the guy?

[lala_rawraw]

8. Holy Shit!!!!

I need to get drunk:( (did I say that out loud or just think it?)

[Old and In the Way]

11. Did you here about his run for sheriff in Aspen?

Wanted to rip the asphalt out of the streets and replace with sod, deputize the deputies to dispense mescaline on a "as needed basis", and change the name to "Fat City". IIRC, he lost when the Democrats / Republicans combined to thwart his election....

[WilliamPitt]

12. Fuck yeah

[Emboldened Chimp]

24. Freak power!

[uppityperson]

13. Isn't he a Doonesbury character too? What will Trudeau do?

[meegbear]

14. Damn ...

a true American is gone.

[lazarus]

15. Fucking hell

Mahalo. The Great One shall be missed.

[WilliamPitt]

16. Check the blog

[Last Lemming]

17. SPORTSWRITER!

give me a break

[WilliamPitt]

18. Read posts 7 and 10

and get informed, 'lemming.'

[Last Lemming]

20. I meant "sportswriter"

as in surely there is a far better sobriquet--I'm thinking more like "Legend ","Literary Giant", "One of the Best Writers of My Personal Generation", "Original Player in the Literary Game of Creative Nonfiction", or even "Best Selling Author." "Sportswriter" made him sound just a simple media shill

I also have to admit, despite having read Thompson since Part One of his serialized "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," appeared way too long ago in Rolling Stone, and having read a lot of his stuff, I've managed to miss his sportswriting.

[kick-ass-bob]

19. He was the man.

The mad genius type, but still the man.

A great piece of America has left us.
:(

[nickgutierrez]

21. Damn.

I never took the time to familiarize myself with his writing. It looks like that's something I'm going to have to do sometime soon.

What a major loss... :(

[HuckleB]

22. The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved

The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved

http://www.derbypost.com/hunter.html

Among the best he ever did, IMHO.

"The Temptations of Jean-Claude Killy" might be the best he ever did, but I can't find a link to it on the 'Net.

[DinahMoeHum]

23. I loved his take about Super Bowl sportswriting from 30 years ago:

(sorry, can't find the link)

"For eight long and degrading days I had skulked around Houston with all the other professionals, doing our jobs--which was actually to do nothing at all except drink all the free booze we could pour into our bodies, courtesy of the National Football League, and listen to an endless barrage of some of the lamest and silliest swill ever uttered by man or beast..."

:evilgrin: