Pubdate: Mon, 21 Feb 2005
Source: Journal Times, The (Racine, WI)
Copyright: 2005 The Journal Times
Contact:  http://www.journaltimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1659
Author: Rachel Campbell
http://www.mapinc.org/people/Hunter+S.+Thompson

GONZO MONDAY

Well, my hero is dead. Happy Monday, everybody.

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, whom I cribbed a column title from last week much 
to the delight of my readers, reportedly killed himself via shotgun Sunday 
at his home in Woody Creek, Colorado. He was 67. (Or 65, depending on what 
obit you read.) I am shocked. This seems to come out of nowhere. Not, of 
course, that I knew the guy or anything: He was one of those people I'd 
hoped that maybe, if I worked hard enough and went to the wrong parties, I 
would get to meet someday; maybe buy him a beer, shake his hand, and try 
not to make an utter ass of myself in the process. In fact, not many people 
get to say they really knew Dr. Thompson at this point, as he was extremely 
private on a personal level - although very prolific publicly, writing 
books, the occasional story for Rolling Stone, and regularly columnizing 
for ESPN.com. No Salinger, he.

In fact, his latest column was published only five days before he killed 
himself - and titled, let the history books show, "Shotgun Gold with Bill 
Murray." (Click 
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/archive?columnist=hunter_s._thompson&root=page2 
for the ESPN.com archives of Thompson's column, "Hey Rube.") Was it an 
accident? Please? After all, the good doctor was a passionate gun 
collector. But it doesn't look that way: According to the statement issued 
to the press by his son, Juan Thompson, "Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his 
life with a gunshot to the head." This is an observation that the Pitkin 
County Sheriff's department has, thus far anyway, confirmed.

And so Hunter S. Thompson joins Hemingway, Plath, Woolf, Toole, and 
countless other writers-cum-suicides. His books and the film "Fear and 
Loathing in Las Vegas" will become best-sellers on Amazon, eBay, and 
BarnesandNoble.com today; and you know someone is sketching Hopper's 
"Nighthawks" as we speak, perhaps substituting Thompson for the guy sitting 
off by himself at the counter - where James Dean ended up in the "Boulevard 
of Broken Dreams" version.

So I guess, if I feel anything about it, it's an as-yet-unspecified emotion 
somewhere between being heartbroken and being livid. As I type this, I'm 
casting occasional glances at a picture of Thompson from Rolling Stone I 
have taped up at my desk, and I'm absolutely furious. But that will 
probably change. Thompson-induced states of mind are nothing if not volatile.
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MAP posted-by: Beth