True North

Growing up as a less than uprightly focused youth, one of the monthly publications I subscribed to that excelled at pointing people at shiny objects was Rolling Stone. Of course it's known as the longest lasting and most successful journal of rock and road, Rolling Stone informed us of many things other than just music, frankly Musician was a far better source if you wanted that in the 80s and 90s. One of those tangential areas RS did not shy from was politics.

Fortunately during that time a marvelous humorous conservative voice, P.J. O’Rourke was often to be found gracing the pages there and surely had a hand in pushing my young pile of grey matter towards the right. I can't imagine Jan Wenner and O'Rourke agreeing on much, but he had the good sense to make him the foreign-affairs desk chief at RS where he remained until 2001. Wenner, prouly a man of the left also was instrumental in pushing Tom Wolfe, another of the conservative greats in modern fiction. I wonder why we aren't finding Jonah Goldberg and Mark Steyn following suit in RS these days? I digress.

Actually I got a double dose of O'Rourke because he was also to be found at another monthly staple of mine, The National Lampoon. His collaboration on National Lampoon's 1964 High School Yearbook Parody (1974) (with Doug Kenney) and the National Lampoon's Sunday Newspaper Parody (1978) (with John Hughes) are absolute treasures. Tim Graham and I read every word howling with laughter, and I still have my tattered newsprint edition of the Dacron Republican Democrat. I recently bought a newly printed softcover edition, but it's just not the same. I would mention his work in Playboy, but I can't recall ever reading anything there.

Yes, I have read a handful of O'Rourke's books, but not as many as I should—they're on my list. Anyway, the reason for this post is to let you know that O-Rourke will be here soon to speak and the best bit, it's free!

P.J. O’Rourke, best-selling author and America’s leading political satirist, will be speaking at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, April 29th at 7pm. The event, titled “Yes, I’m Still a Conservative, Damnit!: An Evening with PJ O’Rourke” is hosted by the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities chapter of Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).

The event will be held at Northrop Auditorium (84 Church St. SE) in Minneapolis. The event is free and open to the public, with a special gift to the first 1000 attendees. No tickets will be issued.

With more than one million words under his byline and more citations in the "Penguin Dictionary of Humorous Quotations" than any other living writer, P.J. O'Rourke has established himself as America's premier political satirist. He is the best-selling author of 12 books, including "Parliament of Whores", "Give War a Chance", "Eat the Rich", "The CEO of the Sofa", "On Wealth of Nations" and "Peace Kills". Both Time Magazine and The Wall Street Journal have labeled O'Rourke as "the funniest writer in America".

Opening for PJ O’Rourke is former State Representative Phil Krinkie, who is currently the president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota.

What can I say. Be there.

Cross-posted at Freedom Dogs. Comments welcome.