The son of Hunter S. Thompson says the author shot himself to death at his Aspen-area home.

[HAL9000]

AP News Alert

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- The son of Hunter S. Thompson says the author shot himself to death at his Aspen-area home.

[Mad Mammoth]

Hunter Thompson. Wow.

That is phonetically SO close to 'Helen Thomas' I almost started doing cartwheels.

Maybe next time.

[Luke21]

The Lanny Davis you are thinking of is one and the same. He was a snot nosed punk in 1974, and got Harold Hughes to write the forward to his book. It's a boring thing that uses the phrase, "new politics" a couple thousand times.

It's the same Lanny Davis we all love so much.

[beyond the sea]

re: You may be thinking of Spalding Gray.

'Swimming to Cambodia' was very funny.

[Lockbar]

His supply of pot and hash must have run dry. Nothing to do after that except kill yourself, if you are a degenerate.

[beyond the sea]

Already such speculation on DU. The General Discussion forum has a thread titled, "What dirt did Hunter Thompson have on the Bush family?"....

My, they're fast!

[beyond the sea]

He was a control freak, despite a lifetime spent trying to get out of control. --- excellent comment.

And a savagely funny writer. --- yep.

[beyond the sea]

Yeah, it's funny how these ghouls come out just to tell you how they don't care. If they don't care, why are they on the thread?

Total agreement here. It's ugly and small.

[Dane]

During one of Thompson’s infamous digressions, he relates a story from the ’68 presidential campaign in which Lyndon Johnson “told his manager to start a massive rumor campaign about his opponent’s lifelong habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of his own barnyard sows.” The campaign manager protests that nobody will believe that the guy’s a “pigfucker.

Not to put you down BTS, just pointing out a fact, but Johnson didn't have a Presidential campaign in 68.

[beyond the sea]

Whatever you may think of the man's politics, when he was at his best as a "gonzo journalist" in the 70's, he was peerless. ......... It's sad to see a man become a caricature of himself, and unfortunately that's what Thompson became in his later years.

well said ..... thanks

[beyond the sea]

I always thought it a little odd that the person who turned me on to this book in college was the absolutely most conservative guy I knew on campus.

..... they fool you sometimes, don't they? ;-)

[since1868]

booked

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Alright, now I think I have a better picture of things.

That guy always struck me as being a smarmy, pompous jerk.

[Darnright]

>Was son like father?
"Hunter S. Thompson The godfather of gonzo says 9/11 caused a "nationwide nervous breakdown" -- and let the Bush crowd loot the country and savage American ..."<

Well, since you mentioned gonzo...

[bill1952]

Mine, as well, but curiously, I'm not sure why.

I suppose it had something to do with the mystique of the Hell's Angels back in the late 60s, when I read it in high school.

BTW, your page is worth posting here:

The time would be easy to know, for then mankind
would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and
wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals
thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and
revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would
teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and
enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with
a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.
— H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Thanks for the memories.

[Toskrin]

That's funny, but it also illustrates the main problem with Thompson. He was a man pretending to be a journalist who told vicious lies about politicians. Hapless readers would read them as the truth.

There was one about he and Nixon wandering around D.C. one night, with Nixon drunk and in a ski mask. Thompson liked Nixon - he admired him for his knowledge of football.

[beyond the sea]

Why do most men shoot themselves when committing suicide? Do they just want to make a big mess for the little woman to clean up? Why can't they take a more genteel way out like carbon monoxide or pills which leaves no bloody mess.

That's a good question. I have thought about it much over the past 40+ years. Since my father jumped off a bridge when I was thirteen and my mother chose the car/garage thing fifteen years later, I have had quite a reason to give it some thought.

My theory is that men are afraid the carbon monoxide method may take too much time, and subsequently some innocent person may come by and stop them, leaving them embarrassed and mortified.

But to me the shooting method is too messy (very inconsiderate of those coming by later). No one should have to clean up after such an affair.

When and if I should choose to take my life because of unwanted lamentable circumstances, I'm getting a friend to fly me over the ocean, have a few drinks, and eventually hop out. I'll make my escape that way. What a rush, and no nasty cleanup!

[beyond the sea]

During one of Thompson’s infamous digressions, he relates a story from the ’68 presidential campaign in which Lyndon Johnson

Perhaps the sentence was poorly written. Perhaps it was meant to say that H.S.T. (writing during the 1968 campaign) told that "pig story" about Johnson from an earlier Texas campaign of Johnson.

That's the way I was thinking it had to have been meant. Hmmm. ;-)

[bill1952]

Wow! Thanks.

I had read Hell's Angels so long ago that I forgot why I liked the book.

Now I remember why I always loved motorcycles.

[bill1952]

Think it through first.
Unless the door is removed, you won't be able to open the door in flight enough to jump out. (air pressure)

And he would have to be a pretty good friend. 8^)

[Slip18]

I haven't seen one, but I haven't checked all the posts lately. She was a beauty, but a sorrowful creature. She only ate lettuce for ten years to keep her weight down. She was told by her agent or Bobby Darrin's agent that he had divorced her. She loved her son, though. May she RIP. Bobby Darrin is already RIPing.