Disney Goes Gonzo
Someone at ESPN had the great idea of letting Hunter S. Thompson write his own Web column. Then survival mode kicked in and it was decided never to let the world know about "Hey, Rube."
So Thompson's fevered, hysterical ravings which rope Johnny Depp, Grantland Rice, and gambling—always gambling—together into a paranoid alterna-verse are largely overlooked.
When Thompson "remembers" his youth spent running wild at the SEC basketball tourney, it is easy to see why the Disney suits might sweat:
Wow! That really was the good old days, eh? That kind of behavior today, in 2002 America, would get you locked up by some quasi-legal Military Tribunal in a cage at Guantanamo Bay … and it was not that long ago, either—barely 20 years since the days when people could speak openly to each other without fear of the police and wander around freely, wherever they wanted to, as long as they weren't hurting anyone else, when a nationwide panic like the one we have today was inconceivable, when some hideous bogeyman like "War on Terrorism" would have seemed more like a vengeful Communist Plot than something that could ever happen in the good old U.S.A.
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I have to post this under my secret identity so the Gestapo… oh, I’m sorry, I mean the “police” don’t track me down. But, I’m verry happy to see Mr. Thompson’s little piece. It’s good to see him doing sports “journalism” again. But that being said, I do fear for his life. Speaking out against the government these days can get you shot. I hope that Mr. Thompson’s compound is heavily fortified, and the punji stakes are set in pits filled with strawberry margaritas.
God help me, I do love Dr. Thompson.