It is strange to read an obituary of someone of whom you have never consciously heard, but immediately feel a great affinity with. That is how I felt when I read the obituary of the American journalist Molly Ivins:America's funniest political columnist - and one of the staunchest and most sensible voices of what passes for the American left - she gave her audience everyday reasons to fight for issues of equality and peace, while ruthlessly deflating political pomposity and skewering hypocrisy. And all in a folksy Texas style that she could turn on and off at will. After Pat Buchanan's rabid speech at the 1992 Republican convention, it was Ivins who quipped, "It probably sounded better in its original German."
The sharp wit seemed to be on constant tap:
In 1982 she became a columnist on the Dallas Times-Herald. When she opined of one Texas legislator that, "If his IQ were any lower, they'd have to water him twice a day," a reader complained, "Molly Ivins can't say that, can she?" - which became the paper's catchphrase for marketing her, and the title of a collection of her journalism.
...And being a Texan, she concentrated quite a lot of her fire of "Dubya":
Ivins took a relatively benign approach to the first President Bush, finding his attempts at playing the Texan amusing - "real Texans do not use summer as a verb". After noting in 1999 that "If you think his daddy had trouble with 'the vision thing', wait'll you meet this one,"
There are also some very warm words about her from Simon Hoggart this morning, which confirms that we have lost a great woman.
No comments:
Post a Comment