Houston Chronicle update on Molly Ivins

[tpsbmam]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/headline/metro/4209858

<snips>

The best-selling author and nationally syndicated columnist has just buried her dear friend, the late former Gov. Ann Richards, losing her to the same wretched disease that afflicts Ivins.

There. She may have poor balance, only a few patches of hair on her head and no assurance her breast cancer won't undo her in the end, but Ivins is still the sharp-witted, irreverent, funny provocateur who's been excoriating politicians, even liberal ones, since the day she set down her size-11 foot in the Texas Legislature nearly four decades ago.

Despite her illness, Ivins, 62, is cranking out two columns a week, appearing in more than 300 newspapers across the land. She says she makes a living telling folks who's getting screwed and who's doing the screwing. When the Texas Legislature convenes, she tells readers their village is missing its idiot. The national GOP resurgence has given her some of her best material. She's fond of saying that calling President Bush "shallow" is like calling a dwarf "short."

She's not just the leftist agitator with the 6-foot frame, she's the leftist agitator with the 6-foot frame from Texas, and she never lets people forget it.

This is her third bout with the disease. Chemotherapy has claimed her thick red locks. She's feeling OK, on the whole, despite the balance problem and constipation.

She has yet to learn if the chemo and radiation treatments have finally eradicated those miserable cancer cells from her body.

If she appeared a bit fatigued during the visit to her home in Austin's trendy Travis Heights neighborhood, who could blame her. She was grappling with Richards' death. And she'd returned less than a week before from an 11-day, 227-mile raft trip through the Grand Canyon, a trip which she said reduced her ego "to the size of a grain of sand."

[NMDemDist2]

1. thanks for this, she is another national treasure and I'm glad to hear

she did the Grand Canyon trip

peace and wellness to you Molly! :yourock:

[madrchsod]

2. she is a national treasure

we can ill afford to lose another

[bleever]

3. K&R for Molly Ivins, National Treasure.

[dogday]

4. I don't think about one without thinking about the other...

Both Molly Ivins and Ann Richards are so alike to me that I don't see one without thinking about the other.. Both strong opinionated women with sharp wit... The world is a better place because of them...

[gully]

5. Well wishes to Molly Ivins, a grand progressive voice.

nt

[lonestarnot]

6. Ah damn! I didn't know she was also ill. I hope she beats the hell

out of the cancer. She is another of my icons! Damn.

[Cleita]

7. I hope she's on the road to recovery. We can't lose

another voice who speaks truth to power with the biting wit that she does it with.

My thoughts are with Molly Ivins.

[wiley]

8. Praying for you, Molly!

:patriot:

[ninkasi]

9. Molly Ivins is wonderful

Molly is one of the great ones. She is honest, humorous, and has a way of getting to the truth which is too often covered with a layer of lies. I pray for her health, and hope that she will continue to carry the torch of truth high, so that others will follow.

[Dudley_DUright]

10. Amen

[femrap]

11. Kick cancer's ass, Molly! nt

[immoderate]

12. K&R for Molly.

:loveya:

--IMM

[rhiannon55]

13. Molly is one of the best

May she beat this thing and live many more healthy and productive years.

:toast: Here's to ya Molly!

[Berry Cool]

14. It's not quite "the same wretched disease"

Both women had cancer, but Richards' was esophageal (which unfortunately has a REALLY bad recovery rate). Molly Ivins is on her third go-'round with breast cancer, which also is not good, but her outlook depends on the pathology, really--it's a whole different kind of disease and different breast cancers are different.

I hope she keeps kicking it away for a long, long time.

[sonias]

15. A great Texas jewel

She's one of our finest Texas citizens appreciated world wide. Ann's death took a toll on us all. Molly is going to be BBQed (better than a roast) as a fundraiser for her beloved Texas Observer on Sunday Oct. 8th.
http://www.texasobserver.org/events_mollybbq.php

Sonia

[mom cat]

17. Ann and Molly are Real Texans, unlike the squater in the White House.

[opihimoimoi]

16. Molly is one of them GIANTS that come along infrequently..she is a living

treasure for sure....She tried to warn us of Bush in the Summer of 2000...but the Nation did not listen hard enough.

[melody]

18. cancer is no match for Molly

She'll be around for a long time to come.

[Bridget Burke]

19. But will the Chronicle carry Molly's column?

Of course not. Some years ago, the Chronicle bought their competition, The Houston Post, & closed it down overnight. No final issue, no nothing.

The Chronicle began using all the Post's syndicated columns (& comics). Except for Molly Ivins. The currrent Chronicle owners are not total Republican scumbags--but still, no Molly.

[blogslut]

20. Praying for Molly

I love that woman!

[progressoid]

21. Almost a eulogy for the living