https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/books/pj-orourke-dead.html
I was a big fan, having been introduced to satire reading his columns and books in high school.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/books/pj-orourke-dead.html
I was a big fan, having been introduced to satire reading his columns and books in high school.
I didn't always agree with PJ but I I always respected him and enjoyed how he said things even when I didn't enjoy what he said. The world is a better place for him having been here and worse off for his passing.
Damn. I both enjoyed his books and heard him speak a few times. He had been a regular on "Wait, wait, don't tell me" for a few seasons and I enjoyed his insights.
"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity."
I think I first read his stuff in National Lampoon when I was in high school. After that, his name just sort of showed up everywhere. He was a great writer and his stuff was always fun to read.
I am sad that he won't be writing anymore.
Damn. That is sad. I expect he's now at a wine tasting with my uncle Rick, one of his biggest fans, discussing the underappreciated merits of the Lucas Electrical system and How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink.
This is a shame. I like all his stuff, but All the Troubles in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty Is one of the laugh-out-loud funniest books I've ever read.
Wow this is a bummer. He's literally one of the guys who showed me that it was okay to write about cars in an informative and insightful way while making people laugh, and that didn't mean you took your job or responsibility any less serious. I still remember reading his stuff in Car and Driver when I was like 15, 16, 17 and thinking "I want to do this so bad. I think I could be good at it."
I love that his writing prompt for seemingly everything he ever wrote was simply "How does this make me feel?" Then he'd set about a stream of consciousness that was somehow also full of fact and detail. That's just such an awe inspiring blend of talent, confidence and straight up effort.
PJ has always been one of my minor deities.
Sad, me. Ferrari refutes the decline of the west, and his boat tour through the Soviet Union are a couple of my favorites.
Plus, his National Lampoon stuff was epic.
My favorite P.J. O'Rourke quotation: A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.
I need to go dig out my well-read collection of his books. They were constant companions in high school, and probably contributed materially to the attitude problem people seemed to think I had.
I remember a line from his review of a '67 Mustang from "Rent-A-Wreck" in LA:
"...with one headlight pointed at Voyager 2 and the other searching for nightcrawlers."
I'd never read him before-feels like a mix of Mencken and Hunter S. Thompson. Sample of his writing from the NYT Obit below, it's from an article titled, "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink." *EDIT-that's not the correct title* He was driving a 308 GTS across the country when...
We came by a 930 Turbo Porsche near the Talladega exit. He was going about 90 when we passed him, and he gave us a little bit of a run, passed us at about 110, and then we passed him again. He was as game as anybody we came across and was hanging right on our tail at 120. Ah, but then — then we just walked away from him. Five seconds and he was nothing but a overturned-boat-shaped dot in the mirrors. I suppose he could have kept up, but driving one of those ass-engined Nazi slot cars must be a task at around 225 percent of the speed limit. But not for us. I’ve got more vibration here on my electric typewriter than we had blasting into Birmingham that beautiful morning in that beautiful car on a beautiful tour across this wonderful country from the towers of Manhattan to the bluffs of Topanga Canyon so fast we filled the appointment logs of optometrists’ offices in 30 cities just from people getting their eyes checked for seeing streaks because they’d watched us go by.
In reply to CrustyRedXpress :
The pedant in me has to point out that that is from "Ferrari refutes the decline of the West". "How to drive fast while getting your wing wang squeezed..." is also fine literature, but is National Lampoon stuff, not Car & Driver.
02Pilot said:I need to go dig out my well-read collection of his books. They were constant companions in high school, and probably contributed materially to the attitude problem people seemed to think I had.
Same here. I read everything I could get in school
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Whoops! You're probably right-here is the full obit: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/books/pj-orourke-books-essays.html
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