Fear and Loathing

Hunter S. Thompson was my hero. The guy was an influence in my life, not a good one mind you, but still an influence. In fact one of the signatures that I use is, “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." That rather wraps the life of Hunter into a few words, the guy was the bomb.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was published in installments in the November 1971 issues of the Rolling Stone magazine. It was an account of Hunter S. Thompson’s alter ego, Raoul Duke, and his Samoan attorney Dr. Gonzo (who happens to be Oscar Zeta Acosta) drive from L.A. to Las Vegas with the following:

"...two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers.....also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls...but the only thing that worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the dephts of an ether binge..."

I laughed until I cried and I loved that article then as I do now. The book was later made into a few movies, but the book and the writings remain as they are forever in time.

There is a purpose to my madness in the article. First of which, no I am not a drug induced zombie walking through life, unless copious amounts of coffee is considered a drug. But, one of the sites that I haunt, Fear and Loathing - The Gonzo Papers likes Hunter too. He also has some very good posts and articles that are worth your time reading.

The author of the site has recently put out a publication, electronic I think, titled, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Blogosphere in which the Ranter’s site is listed, so I have a few other reasons for liking his site as well. (Tongue in cheek joke)

Stop by Fear and Loathing - The Gonzo Papers and see what’s going on, while you are there tell him The Ranter sent you.