I remember the first time someone told me, in effect, that I was an asshole. “I see you don’t suffer fools gladly,” a fellow barfly at the Lion’s Head bar remarked one night. The Lion’s Head was at that time, the early 70’s, the famous “writer’s bar” on Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village, and the guy who made that sage observation about yours truly was one of the older sages we younger writers looked up to. He was a newspaperman, naturally, with an emphasis on “man” as nearly every single newspaper writing job in the city was filled by men in those days. (Women at the New York Times, Time, and Newsweek would have to go to court to begin the long slog to achieve parity as journalists at the established news publications in town, and that day had not yet come.)
From a friend who has never, nor will ever, feel hip, (okay, maybe a tiny bit the 3 years I worked on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse) I share your admiration of the people of Kansas. They did the seeming impossible. They pondered the realities and voted with humanity rather than tribalism. Let’s hope that others notice what democracy really is about.
Hi Lucian, I always enjoy your articles. This one brought back memories from when I was in my 20's. I lived in the Village on 13th St. west of 6th Avenue in a six-story walkup. I was a newly married baby- sitter for an adorable boy, the son of the female editor of The Village Voice. When I was about to give birth, my father-in-law arranged for my husband and me to move to Stuyesant Town so I wouldn't have to walk up five flights with my big belly. I'm a retired clinical psychologist and author of six books. If you're curious, you'll find me on Amazon and Google, Edith Fiore, Ph.D. Thanks for stirring up my memory bank.
if she thinks it's an excessive award for punitive Ds, but by all that's just and fair, almost no public figure in the good ole USA today deserves to be slapped upside the head with FORTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS in (theoretically) legally extractable damages as much as does Alex Jones.
ARGUABLY, only Trumpsky rivals his recent record as a skunk and a completely amoral liar. By "recent" I mean, the last hundred years or so? Who else is a candidate for that level of vicious slandering crackpottery, I ask you?
Future historians and generations yet unborn are going to gawk in shocked amazement at the sheer nastiness these people and their slimy ilk engaged in, as they were cheered on by a mob of dunces, a confederacy of dunces, so this jury evaluation, still awaiting finality in case the remitittur doctrine takes it down a few million, is one sign that karmic retribution is in the works.
In any case it's one thing to do your best to refrain from savage put-downs, or worse, of fools who patronize you directly, or insult you in other ways, and quite another to allow our collective revulsion at Trumpsky and Alex Jones, etc., to to be stifled. I say, I urge: do not stifle that moral outrage, but do not become "holier than thou" in the process, it can be pretty tricky at times but not when dealing with bombastic quasi-fascist oafs like Trump or Jones, that's for sure.
"And so too are they all, all honorable assholes" - said Brutus in the vernacular, at the funeral of Julius Caesar. When we have seen the corruption of our Presidency and the politicization of our highest court, the necessity of a public campaign to regain basic rights is critical. Thankfully that groundswell has reached Kansas. This is what it takes to redirect representational government, democratic or republican. It's the right thing to do, and it doesn't take a violent insurrection.
As a Kansas-born person who still has many strongly right-wing relatives living in the state, and with many of whom I now have much less contact than I used to, I was absolutely thrilled by this outcome. I was also absolutely stunned by this outcome, in a good way. Way to GO, Kansas!
when you write about the Head, it makes me happy. it SHOULDN'T, since a lot of the time I spent there is lost forever, for the most obvious reason. but thinking about the way it felt entirely different from every other bar makes me happy. and it was certainly the regular clientele. it's even possible that I was the fool you wouldn't suffer gladly....
I know I've said all this before, but hey....
and yes, the Kansas thing indeed demonstrates that hipness can be a pretty limited strategy for getting a lot of serious shit done.
I believe that that the fool's in Kansas were Republican legislators, bigwigs, and poobahs who schemed against women generally to end abortion as a realistic alternative to carrying a pregnancy to term. Those fools lost big time.
I became much more tolerant of fools one I figured out that I was one.
From a friend who has never, nor will ever, feel hip, (okay, maybe a tiny bit the 3 years I worked on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse) I share your admiration of the people of Kansas. They did the seeming impossible. They pondered the realities and voted with humanity rather than tribalism. Let’s hope that others notice what democracy really is about.
Hi Lucian, I always enjoy your articles. This one brought back memories from when I was in my 20's. I lived in the Village on 13th St. west of 6th Avenue in a six-story walkup. I was a newly married baby- sitter for an adorable boy, the son of the female editor of The Village Voice. When I was about to give birth, my father-in-law arranged for my husband and me to move to Stuyesant Town so I wouldn't have to walk up five flights with my big belly. I'm a retired clinical psychologist and author of six books. If you're curious, you'll find me on Amazon and Google, Edith Fiore, Ph.D. Thanks for stirring up my memory bank.
As a Kansan, I’m often embarrassed by my home state, but not this week.
We are all assholes--just a question of when it is your turn to flame.....
I think all of us cringe at things we said or did when we were young and knew it all. Wisdom comes with age (at least for some of us--MAGAs excepted).
Some good news amid the dire accounts of all sorts of eco-problems and political chicanery, skullduggery and downright terrorism:
www.npr.org/2022/08/05/1116099506/alex-jones-infowars-sandy-hook-lies-45-million-in-punitive-damages FORTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS, MISTER JONES....
Yeah yeah yeah, the judge can, maybe must, apply the doctrine of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remittitur
if she thinks it's an excessive award for punitive Ds, but by all that's just and fair, almost no public figure in the good ole USA today deserves to be slapped upside the head with FORTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS in (theoretically) legally extractable damages as much as does Alex Jones.
ARGUABLY, only Trumpsky rivals his recent record as a skunk and a completely amoral liar. By "recent" I mean, the last hundred years or so? Who else is a candidate for that level of vicious slandering crackpottery, I ask you?
Future historians and generations yet unborn are going to gawk in shocked amazement at the sheer nastiness these people and their slimy ilk engaged in, as they were cheered on by a mob of dunces, a confederacy of dunces, so this jury evaluation, still awaiting finality in case the remitittur doctrine takes it down a few million, is one sign that karmic retribution is in the works.
In any case it's one thing to do your best to refrain from savage put-downs, or worse, of fools who patronize you directly, or insult you in other ways, and quite another to allow our collective revulsion at Trumpsky and Alex Jones, etc., to to be stifled. I say, I urge: do not stifle that moral outrage, but do not become "holier than thou" in the process, it can be pretty tricky at times but not when dealing with bombastic quasi-fascist oafs like Trump or Jones, that's for sure.
This is just an absolutely fabulous piece. Thanks, Lucian.
Very nice juxtaposing, Lucian.
"And so too are they all, all honorable assholes" - said Brutus in the vernacular, at the funeral of Julius Caesar. When we have seen the corruption of our Presidency and the politicization of our highest court, the necessity of a public campaign to regain basic rights is critical. Thankfully that groundswell has reached Kansas. This is what it takes to redirect representational government, democratic or republican. It's the right thing to do, and it doesn't take a violent insurrection.
As a Kansas-born person who still has many strongly right-wing relatives living in the state, and with many of whom I now have much less contact than I used to, I was absolutely thrilled by this outcome. I was also absolutely stunned by this outcome, in a good way. Way to GO, Kansas!
when you write about the Head, it makes me happy. it SHOULDN'T, since a lot of the time I spent there is lost forever, for the most obvious reason. but thinking about the way it felt entirely different from every other bar makes me happy. and it was certainly the regular clientele. it's even possible that I was the fool you wouldn't suffer gladly....
I know I've said all this before, but hey....
and yes, the Kansas thing indeed demonstrates that hipness can be a pretty limited strategy for getting a lot of serious shit done.
Hope is hip. Thank you, Kansas.
Go for it, you Leavenworth High School Pioneer!
I bet Dorothy clutching Toto would really be happy to be back in Kansas now!! Kudos to those Kansas voters!
I believe that that the fool's in Kansas were Republican legislators, bigwigs, and poobahs who schemed against women generally to end abortion as a realistic alternative to carrying a pregnancy to term. Those fools lost big time.