This is from Howard Kurtz's column in the
Post today. Pretty fucking funny, considering the source:
But if there was any doubt of Thompson's impact, Tucker Carlson clears it up in the Weekly Standard, describing his reaction--at age 12--to reading "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas":
"In the first chapter, Thompson famously describes the stash he's accumulated for his weekend road trip to Vegas: 'two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of uppers, downers, laughers, screamers.' This is in addition to 'a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls.'
"I resolved to try it all, down to the ether, which I finally located midway through tenth grade in a headshop on the West Side of Manhattan. (It gave me double vision and a headache.) Tracking down and taking everything on Thompson's list became a kind of mission, a pharmacological scavenger hunt that preoccupied me through high school.
"At this point, I should add the customary disclaimer about how drugs are bad, a lie and a trap and a destroyer of lives. That's all true, but not in my case. For me, the whole experience was interesting and fun. I had a great time."
Carlson gets this week's Honesty in Punditry award.
- By Howard Kurtz
