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.

[Casloy]

Big deal. He was an ahole.

[gopwinsin04]

Matt Drudge mentioned at one time that HST was one of his role models in reporting, probably not the liberal politics side..but gonzo journalism--yes!

[johnmilken]

Don't go to writers for politics, go for their writing.

HELL'S ANGELS and FEAR AND LOATHING are incredible works. Something else has dies with HST.

[MeekOneGOP]

I'm not sure who this Hunter S. Thompson is.

[robomurph]

I'm still trying to find a Vincent Black Shadow.

Saw one in an antiques store, of all places, in Laguna Beach a few years ago. They wanted $30,000 for it. I didn't have the 30k. It was very cool looking, in a scary way.

RIP HST

[Redbob]

Must not have shot himself in the head;

that would have been a non-fatal wound.

---

Whatever will Doonesbury be like now with the remaining boring cast?

[hineybona]

Hells Angels is an excellent book ..VERY well done ..Agree he was a nut though .

[E Rocc]

I actually thought about this movie last night after seeing a convertible car on tv. I may have to pop in the DVD later on today.

Convertibles got their "image" from the movies. In the early days, filmmakers found that they could feature their actors way better when they were in covertibles than closed cars. Sunglasses became "cool" for the same basic reason.

-Eric

[Born Conservative]

this is really wierd... I coulda sworn I heard about this a couple of months ago.

Me too; I thought he died a couple of months ago.

[TigersEye]

He's been killing himself for decades.

[JellyJam]

He quoted Peggy Lee?

[P.O.E.]

I remember reading some of his early works during my college days. Brings back memories of those times. So I agree, a little piece of Americana has died. RIP.

Back then, he seem twisted, funny, and hip. His later rants lost their comedy. I guess that's pretty much the path of liberal thought. It seems like fun at the time when you're young, but when it's time to get serious about issues it breaks down and loses its charm.

[expatpat]

Sounds like his fear and loathing, and paranoia became too much to handle. RIP.

[ppaul]

LOL

[beyond the sea]

Dorothy Parker......Algonquin Round Table

A few comments from that table:

George S. Kaufman: Once when asked by a press agent, "How do I get my leading lady’s name into your newspaper?" Kaufman replied, "Shoot her."

Robert Sherwood, reviewing cowboy hero Tom Mix: "They say he rides as if he’s part of the horse, but they don’t say which part."

Dorothy Parker: "That woman speaks eighteen languages and can’t say ‘no’ in any of them."

LOL.

[ßuddaßudd]

And people say marketing doesnt work. . .

[Xenalyte]

I've never heard of "Living and Loathing in Las Vegas," and neither has the Internet Movie Database.

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," though, was amazing, and a faithful adaptation of the book.

[rcocean]

I think "Hells Angels" might be read in 2040. I think its his one book that might live on.

And I'll be rereading "Fear and Loathing in 1972" - if I'm still alive. But I don't think anyone else will be. Its a great book but if you don't know, remember, or care about Nixon/Humphrey/McGovern, F&L 1972 will be meaningless to you.

I wonder how many people under 40 know or care about HST.

[Xenalyte]

Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era - the kind of peak that never comes again.

San Francisco in the middle '60s was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant . . .

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then, the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time - and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning . . .

And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting - on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

Rest in peace, finally, Mr. Duke.

In your memory, Bacon and Hap and Xena's Guy and I will check into a Las Vegas hotel under phony names with intent to commit capital fraud and heads full of acid.

[pepperdog]

I don't know who he was, but from the comments here it sounds as if he was one of those liberals who hated Bush. I've been reading about them for some time and it appears they are losing their minds. This may be the first of many suicides. I have some liberal family members who I've avoided discussing politics with, but now I'm kind of worried and think I'll do an intervention.