Dead Drunk Gets Due
Apr 26 2005
Washington Post
by Peter Carlson

Since Hunter S. Thompson killed himself in February, magazines from Rolling Stone to the American Journalism Review have printed tributes to the gonzo journalist. If Thompson is reading his obits in the Great Beyond, his favorite eulogy is probably the one published in Modern Drunkard, the Denver-based magazine of inebriation, which hailed him as a great writer and a great drunk.

"There was always a powerful comfort in knowing he was out there somewhere in the night, roaring drunk, guzzling high-octane whiskey and railing against a world amok with complacency and hypocrisy," wrote Frank Kelly Rich, Modern Drunkard's editor and publisher.

"Hunter was the last of a long, distinguished line of drunkard heroes," Rich wrote, a line in which he included Ernest Hemingway, Humphrey Bogart, Winston Churchill, W.C. Fields and Mark Twain.

Some folks might suggest that shooting yourself, as Thompson did, might be an indication that perhaps you've been drinking a little too much. Rich rejects that logic: "He lived his life on his own terms and that's how he went out."

When he heard the news of Thompson's death, Rich writes, "I personally crawled into a bottle of rum and tried to get a handle on it."

Emerging from the rum bottle -- or perhaps typing while still inside it -- Rich hailed Thompson as a rebel against a society that suppresses fun.

"Nowadays the main rule is Play It Safe," he writes. "Not only should you look before you leap, you should think very seriously about attending a Leapers Anonymous meeting and discussing the possibility that you have a leaping problem."

Readers who want to revel in their own leaping problems can attend the second annual Modern Drunkard Convention in Denver May 13-15. I'm not sure exactly what goes on at a Modern Drunkard convention but I suspect there may be some alcohol involved.