{"id":4024,"date":"2005-08-19T17:57:37","date_gmt":"2005-08-19T21:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2005\/08\/19\/friedman-callahan-even-better"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:57:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:57:29","slug":"friedman-callahan-even-better-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/08\/19\/friedman-callahan-even-better-together\/","title":{"rendered":"friedman & callahan: even better together"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/strong><\/em>e’ve talked about authors Kinky Friedman<\/a> (here) and <\/span>John Callahan<\/span><\/a> (<\/span>here<\/span><\/a>) before. Yesterday<\/span> evening, I had the you<\/em>-nique pleasure of enjoying the prose of the ex-country-<\/span>singer-mystery-writer (Friedman) in a new book that also features the work<\/span> of “our most famous, most wickedly-funny paralyzed cartoonist” (Callahan). <\/span><\/p>\n

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\"KinkyHoldEm\" It’s the Kinkster’s newest non-fiction book. <\/span>Texas Hold ‘Em<\/span><\/em><\/a>: How I<\/em><\/span><\/span> Was Born in a Manger, Died in the Saddle, and Came Back as a Horny Toad<\/em><\/span><\/span>(St. Martin’s Press, 2005). As a reviewer for the <\/span>El Paso Times<\/span><\/em><\/a> put it, Texas<\/em><\/span><\/span> Hold ‘Em<\/em> is: “another <\/span><\/span>Kinky Friedman classic: quirky and full of Texas trivia.”<\/span><\/span> Ramon Renter’a<\/span> <\/span>adds:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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“Friedman writes about anything and everything Texas: riding the<\/span> tour bus with Willie Nelson, witnessing the changing landscape<\/span> in the Texas Hill Country, growing up in Houston in the ’50s,<\/span> and why Austin City Limits never aired his concert.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“As expected, Friedman uses the book to publicize his independent<\/span> bid to be the next governor of Texas in 2006.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“As with previous Kinky Friedman books, you will read this book<\/span> quickly, smiling and sometimes laughing as if you’ve had too many<\/span> shots of tequila. And as the Kinkster likes to say: ‘If the horse dies,<\/span> get off.’ “<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Kinkster insists that both Molly Ivins and George W. Bush are behind his<\/span> 2006 gubernatorial candidacy. (Bill Clinton is a big fan, too, but can’t vote in<\/span> Texas). Since Texas governors don’t do any “heavy lifting,” Kinky figues he<\/span> could do “some spiritual lifting” — with the reminder that “the best things in<\/span> life aren’t things.” He also vows “to fight the wussification” of Texas. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"KinkyHoldEmN\"<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman also claims that lawyers come in droves to his book signing gigs <\/span>(and <\/span>he often signs “May all your juries be well hung.”). His chapter “Ardor<\/span> in the Court” focuses on “the legendary defense lawyer Racehorse Haynes<\/a>,”<\/span> who appears to be a big Kinky fan (but seems to have no website). (You can<\/span> see part of the original Texas Monthly<\/em> article <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>, including a good quip from<\/span><\/span> a Racehorse protege, <\/span>David Berg<\/span><\/a>.) <\/span><\/p>\n

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\"tiny To be honest, I had never heard of Richard “Racehorse” Haynes.<\/span>However, through a little Googling, I found <\/span>Mike Cernovich<\/span><\/a> quoting<\/span> him in a Comment at <\/span>The Legal Underground<\/span><\/em><\/a>, so Haynes’ pedigree<\/span> passes muster with me. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


\nKinky Friedman is 58 (but reads at the 60-year-old level). The Chapter titledf “I Don’t” — on why he prefers to remain unmarried and childless — is worth thefprice of the book (mine’s borrowed from the Schenectady Public Library), andfI suggest you take up Amazon’s offer and look inside it, to enjoy a samplingffrom “I Don’t” and other chapters. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"CallahanBest\" <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I can’t end this post without a tip of the hat to cartoonist John Callahan. I stayed up late, flipping through various volumes of his work<\/a> that I located on my dusty shelves and had smile after guilty smile. Here’s one of my favorites<\/a>.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"restrooms\" p.s<\/strong>.<\/em> I always enjoy sharing a laugh, and last night I exposed a friend of <\/span><\/span>mine for <\/span>the first time to both Kinky and Callahan. Our laugh muscles<\/span><\/span> were aching <\/span>by the time it became too dark out to see the pages. When <\/span><\/span> I met this women<\/span> 15 years ago, she would have never laughed at such<\/span><\/span> silly “male” <\/span>humor. I was about to take credit for her broadened horizons,<\/span><\/span> when I got <\/span>the sneaking suspicion that the years and our friendship now<\/span><\/span> make it <\/span>acceptable for her to let on that she enjoys bawdy and sick humor,<\/span><\/span> too. I’d <\/span>hate to think that over all these decades, women have actually<\/span><\/span> “gotten” all <\/span>the jokes we guys assumed went over their heads.<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\n<\/blockquote>\n

Kobayashi Issa<\/span><\/em><\/a> would surely have loved Kinky and Callahan.<\/span><\/em><\/span> Find a couple dozen of his haiku on laughter, <\/span><\/em>here<\/span><\/em><\/a>:<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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a flea jumps<\/span><\/p>\n

in the laughing Buddha’s<\/span><\/p>\n

mouth<\/span><\/p>\n

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the cricket<\/span><\/p>\n

“Cricky! Cricky!”<\/span><\/p>\n

laughing by himself<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\n
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\n
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<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

laugh at my piss <\/span>\"flyswatter<\/span><\/p>\n

and shudder. . .<\/span><\/p>\n

katydid<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

swat! swat!<\/span><\/p>\n

the escaping fly <\/span>buzzes <\/span><\/p>\n

with laughter<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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jumping aside<\/span><\/p>\n

the crow just laughs . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

snowball<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"cricketGH\" Kobayashi Issa<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

translated by <\/span>David G. Lanoue<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve talked about authors Kinky Friedman (here) and John Callahan (here) before. Yesterday evening, I had the you-nique pleasure of enjoying the prose of the ex-country-singer-mystery-writer (Friedman) in a new book that also features the work of “our most famous, most wickedly-funny paralyzed cartoonist” (Callahan). It’s the Kinkster’s newest non-fiction book. Texas Hold ‘Em: How […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-12U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13076,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024\/revisions\/13076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}