"Spit in the Ocean, No. 7: All About Kesey"

Oregon Magazine ^ | November 8, 2003 | Paul Pintarich

[WaterDragon]

Sometimes I wonder about all this business of keeping the Ken Kesey kettle cooking; if it hasn’t gone a bit too far?

I mean I liked the guy and respected the fact that the Oregon author wrote two fine books about his home state-- “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and probably his masterpiece, “Sometimes a Great Notion”--as well as a number of other, less-successful works. And that he liked little kids, was a good father and farmer, an inspiring teacher.

But the sixties bit, the ongoing “Merry Pranksters” hullaboo, gets a bit tiresome.

Once, at a book convention in Las Vegas, I was present when Kesey, his buddy Ken Babbs and other, much older fellow travelers made an entrance on a replica of that famous wayward bus, “Further” (or was it “Farther?”)

As they considered the creaky pranksters, who seemed to appear from a tie-dyed time warp, some members of the national press, young and old, shook their heads and looked on pityingly.

“Does this guy do anything else?” one wondered.

I often wondered about that too. As an onlooker, a book critic more concerned with Kesey’s work than his lifestyle; someone who had served four years in the Navy and spent the sixties married and working my way through college, I had little time for pranks--....(SNIP)

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[Huck]

“Further” (or was it “Farther?”)

It was "Furthur."