Damn. My mom will be sad about this, she's a big fan of Ivins.
That message about giving hope to radicals, or merely decent people of larger horizons, who live in out-of-the-way places, is nice. I've seen it, it's true.
Yeah, I knew she had breast cancer. So fucking sad.
Back when I lived in Austin, she gave me a jump start when my crap-ass car stalled out in front of hers at the Taco Bell drive-through, and then went on her merry way before I realized who she was.
Besides being an awesome writer, she was good people.
Oh no! She'll have a hero's funeral in Texas.
Well, shit. I have a big soft spot for smart-assed southern women, and she was always one of my favorites.
You actually met her, magpie? I always think of her as being too big for normal life. As if she were writing about politics, drinking beer with her colleagues, snubbing her nose at the NYTimes, considering racism in Texas, sparring with Ross Perot, and appearing on the Tonight Show, all at once.
See Molly Ivins at her satirical best in a video called "The Dildo Diaries"...here:
I have been tryin to remember how long I have been reading her. Certainly the Times-Herald years, and likely back to the Texas Observer in the early 70s. It got distributed in Dallas.
Ann Richards and Molly Ivins helped make Texas bearable, and not a complete embarrassment.
11: Funny, one of the things I liked about her was that she didn't seem too big for normal life. I think my favorite part of Magpie's story is that Molly Ivins ate at the Taco Bell drive through.
13: Molly Ivins memorializing Ann Richards:
At a long-ago political do at Scholz Garten in Austin, everybody who was anybody was there meetin' and greetin' at a furious pace. A group of us got the tired feet and went to lean our butts against a table at the back wall of the bar. Perched like birds in a row were Bob Bullock, then state comptroller, moi, Charles Miles, the head of Bullock's personnel department, and Ms. Ann Richards. Bullock, 20 years in Texas politics, knew every sorry, no good sumbitch in the entire state. Some old racist judge from East Texas came up to him, 'Bob, my boy, how are you?"Bullock said, "Judge, I'd like you to meet my friends: This is Molly Ivins with the Texas Observer."
The judge peered up at me and said, "How yew, little lady?"
Bullock, "And this is Charles Miles, the head of my personnel department." Miles, who is black, stuck out his hand, and the judge got an expression on his face as though he had just stepped into a fresh cowpie. He reached out and touched Charlie's palm with one finger, while turning eagerly to the pretty, blonde, blue-eyed Ann Richards. "And who is this lovely lady?"
Ann beamed and replied, "I am Mrs. Miles."
Ann Richards and Molly Ivins helped make Texas bearable, and not a complete embarrassment.
God, isn't that the truth.
Ann beamed and replied, "I am Mrs. Miles."
God, that's great.
I was thinking about feeling old not because she and Ann and those times are gone, but because I am not seeing an adequate substitute, as in not recognizing the world anymore.
But then I remembered twisty of IBtP.
Yeah, I thought of Twisty too. Austin, breast cancer (thankfully Twisty's is in remission), smart, no bulshit women.
Ivins's first book is a blast - it's not strictly about Texas or national politics, but also about journalism, and what it was like to be a woman in that macho atmosphere when she was starting out. I no longer have the book, but IIRC she spent a succint paragraph or two describing how calling for a copyboy went from "BOY!" to "COPEEEE!" within a few years, when "boy" became recognized as a racist rerm and copyboys were often copygirls.
Yeah I got all lumpy-throated in the car when I heard. I got to meet her once, early 90s, and she's not larger than life at all, she's just plain good folks. The funeral here in Austin is definitely going to be an occasion.
There may be others still with us who get classified with her, people like Twisty, the brassy southern liberal women. But really, there are no substitutes.
God that's sad. Rest in peace, milady.
Oh man, I loved that Copy Boy piece. It's not online anywhere, is it?
In Molly's honor, I will dedicate my new blogging moniker, "Swampcracker."
RIP, dear lady.
A little off topic, or connecting topics, but Father Robert Drinan died on the 28th. RedState has this long argument as to whether it is Catholically correct to place Drinan in Hell.
To this day I still see this image of the committee hearings, in a more vertical seating like a church choir than they use today, with Father Bob Drinan and Pete Rodino flanking Barbara Jordan ass-whupping President Evil as Trent Lott sulked in the upper row.
Goddamn, that was soooo good. I wish my youngers get some such memories.
This is really incredibly sad to me. Molly was one of the very few national media folk I could always count on. It ranks with Paul Wellstone's death, and the deaths of a handful of personal friends from back in the day.
Normally I just plain don't care at all about the deaths of famous people I don't know personally, but Molly was someone I've always wanted to meet, and that's the difference.
It ranks with Paul Wellstone's death
That day and 3 November 2004 were two of the bleakest days of my life. Really. Like the death of Baby Diego.
A friend called me earlier this evening to tell me Ivins was dead. I'm pissed she didn't live to see the end of this nightmare. I'm pissed lots of people won't.
but Molly was someone I've always wanted to meet, and that's the difference
This, absolutely.
The loss to Texas doesn't outweigh the loss to the people who loved her work (and of course to the people who loved her person), but it is felt acutely.
"As if she were writing about politics, drinking beer with her colleagues, snubbing her nose at the NYTimes, considering racism in Texas, sparring with Ross Perot, and appearing on the Tonight Show, all at once."
She was doing all that *and* giving a jump-start to regular folks.
I met her during her first book tour, and she was exactly the combination of hell-raising graciousness that you would expect. She wrote "Keep fighting for freedom" before she autographed it. I'll try.
Total fuckin' bummer.
m, ok, Bush can choke on a pretzel now to even the score
Goddamn. She was a Happy Warrior, and will be missed.
Supposedly the Times fired her partly because whe went barefoot around the office.
The Times' problems aren't recent. Seymour Hersh left in 1979, and I'm pretty sure he was fired.
The Times obit did say she wasn't fired -- that it was a mutual parting of the ways. I like that refusal to wear shoes (and apparently bringing a dog whose name was an expletive to the office) were what broke up the relationship.
Wait, you're saying The New York Times is prissy? Who knew?
I heard it was the "gang pluck" comment that was the final straw.
"Mutual parting of the ways" is a euphemism, right? I suppose she also wanted to spend time with her family and devote time to her other interests and new projects.
31: There's something a little superherolicious about it in retrospect -- Molly Ivins, in her guise of mild-mannered Texas woman driving a big honkin' pickup, swoops in to give a jump start, fight evil and save a few kittens, all while waiting in line for her Enchirito.
I kinda like it that apparently she said the NYT is a good paper, but it's no fun. Hee.
Not a good week - I always loved Ivins and wished I had the talent/guts/whatever to be like her, despite the born-a-Yankee disadvantage. Her tales of the Texas Lege still make me laugh, even tho' the book's been in the bathroom bookcase for a couple of years. [Note: In this house, being in the bathroom bookcase is not a sign that a book is held in low regard. Ivins is nestled between Oscar Wilde and Paul Fussell, with Florence King, P.G. Wodehouse and Steve Allen nearby.]
I worked for Father Drinan's political campaign, yea those many years ago. He was a nice man, with an ability to grasp that his beliefs were not the beliefs of all, and should therefore not be forced upon everyone. I was furious when the Vatican made him leave political office; I suspect his tolerance enraged them.
41: My uncle ran Drinan's opponent's campaign.