Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson died recently. By his own hand. A bullet to the head.

Hunter went out with a bang.

My first reaction was one of sadness. The other was one of thinking what an idiot.

He had fans who loved him all over the world. He was a libertarian and counterculture hero. We needed his strange take on the world especially in this grim day and age.

Was he depressed about the outcome of the last United States presidential race? The thought of ending your life over a political race is asinine. Or was it mainly medical problems? I think he was in seriously poor health. What he needed to do was lay of the cigs, booze, exercise a bit more, he loved swimming I heard, and get his life back on track.

Fast living can't go on forever. Look at Keith Richards. He got a handle on his hard living. And he looks pretty great for his age. Weathered, sure. But fit.

I got into Hunter after buying the DVD of Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas. And then a short time later he offs himself. The swine! Abbie Hoffman ended his own life too. The fool.

I will miss Hunter though.

I even took a recent Hunter S. Thompson inspired trip to Las Vegas. I drove in my candy apple red 2001 Mustang GT from L.A. and checked into the Luxor hours later. Stopped in the town of Baker for lunch too.

I gambled, saw a show, cruised the strip, ordered up huge amounts of room service, guzzled bottles of champagne, and drank Chivas on the rocks, the Good Doctor's drink of choice! Pure Horatio Algier. I even picked up a copy of Algier's book Ragged Dick. Yes, that's the name! Hunter mentioned it in Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas many times.

I won't remember the old Thompson. I'll remember the beautiful badass of the 70's. Living his own twisted version of the American dream.

I think Algier's books inspired him as a young lad growing up in the great state of Kentucky. I should do a movie adaptation of Ragged Dick. A PG movie. It'd be a great edgy title for the film. Ragged Dick hardly meant the same thing then as it does now.

I think Hunter was just too extreme a personality to not go out in some violent, insane way.

Hunter S. Thompson came to this Earth to find the American Dream and in his own psychotic way found it.

Farewell.

Good Doctor, we hardly knew ye.

Pure gonzo journalism...