Hello Otterites.

I come to you off schedule this evening with somber news. Fresh on the heels of my post about dinner companions Monday and Robert’s this morning comes the news that Snakes & Otters hero and north star PJ O’Rourke has died at age 74. He had been ill (lung cancer according to reports) for some months according to his publisher, Morgan Entrekin at Grove Atlantic. The encomia and memorials from pundits for whom he was an inspiration (think Greg Gutfeld) are flowing this evening.

If you recall Otterites, we attempted to contact PJ through his publisher’s web site to invite him to appear, or call us, or just tip a glass of the pure with us. It seems at least part of the reason there was no response was his illness.

I’m feeling as though the rug has been pulled from under my feet Otterites. My bucket list has the top entry just torn off. I may curl up in the floor with a copy of How to Drive Fast on Drugs and While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink.

Robert introduced me to PJ’s stuff way back around 1989 or 1990. I’ve since scooped up something like 14 or so of his books. I write like PJ and talk like PJ, I’ve so internalized his stuff.

In his book All the Trouble In the World, PJ had an article about the overpopulation scare of the early 1990s. If you don’t recall, the seemingly booming population of mostly non-white folks in far away places was of great concern to professional worriers of that day and the like. I quote:

In the 1993 Information Please Almanac– that august source of research info for all eighth graders who have a science report due on Monday morning and didn’t begin it until nine-thirty Sunday night-takes a grimmer view. Information Please claims population will be 8.2 billion by 2020. That’s my approximate checkout date if my liver holds.

He beat that checkout date by 2 years. Pretty prescient really. I’ve known it was a bit of a race against the clock to meet PJ since reading he had a bout of cancer a few years ago.

I’m rambling now dear readers, I’m certain Robert and Francis will give my ramblings focus in the coming days. In the meantime, I will pour a snort and raise a glass and hold my copy of Parliament of Whores close to my bosom. PJ, I hope you knew we were trying to be right and fun, just like we felt you were.