Things are not what they seem . . .

A column describing the events of Saturday, March 3, 2012 experienced and witnessed by the World's Laziest Journalist might prove how and why the parable of the six blind Hindus is still important in the Internet era.

[Six blind Hindus touched an elephant and were asked to describe their reaction.   The one who felt the tail thought elephants were like a strand of rope.   The guy who touched the elephant's trunk, said elephants were just like snakes.   The fellow who touched the ear observed that elephants were just like a big leafed plant.   The man who felt the elephant's stomach was very convinced that elephants were a subcategory of walls.   The guy who touched the tusk, knew that elephants were like swords.   The guy who felt a leg concluded that elephants were very similar to trees.]

On Saturday morning, we met up with James Richard Armstrong II, the homeless columnist who lives in Berkeley CA.   This writer wanted to brainstorm some possible column topics and have a morning cup of coffee.   James was, among other things, concerned about some generalizations a reader had made regarding one of his columns about the plight of the homeless.   People who live in houses (glass or not) tend to be very certain of their perceptions as do all of the six blind Hindus.

Since the homeless writer uses Hunter S. Thompson as a role model and since Thomson's public persona often displayed a cavalier attitude about money, we criticized the Berkeley resident's tendency to imitate Thompson when making financial decisions.

We suggested that perhaps Thompson's attitude was part of a fictitious "image" that was deliberately manufactured.   This was met with a vehement denial of that possibility, which, unfortunately, was impossible to fact-check.   The World's Laziest Journalist explained that he was basing his assertion on one actual encounter with one of the founding fathers of the Gonzo school of Journalism.

At an appearance at the Viper Room in Los Angeles, in 1996, Thompson had made a conspicuous display of having security eject hecklers.   What many in the venue did not notice is that subsequently the persons who had been 86'd would be seen again in the sold out event, quietly observing the proceedings from the very back of the auditorium.   The victims had the material for a personal encounter story that they would still be telling many years later, Thompson had bolstered his Wildman image, and the audience had been treated to an entertaining example of Thompson's lack of tolerance for dissention.

We suggested that (perhaps) Thompson (who owned real estate in the Aspen area of Colorado) was just helping to create an image of an outlaw journalist when he seemed to act irresponsibly about financial matters.  

We have been reading a recently acquired copy of "The Kitchen Readings:   Untold Stories of Hunter S. Thompson" (by Michael Cleverly and Bob Braudis Harper Perennial paperback) and have become aware that often the reality of stories about Hunter do not match the legend and that the tendency is to use the Rio Bravo advice:   "print the legend."

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