GONZO, RIP: A NEW WORLD NOTES EULOGY

I relied on his influence most in the beginning of New World Notes, when I was first trying to figure out how to be a journalist in a world full of stories that somehow seemed both stranger and more real than anything I'd written about before. When the late Hunter S. Thompson covered a subject, he made himself a part of it, and somehow, with all that crazed, intrusive brilliance of his, you got a sense that he helped you understand things more than you ever would, otherwise. It's why I took him as a journalistic inspiration-- and when the topic called for it (as featured here and here, and pictured here and here), it's why I took him on, as an inspiration for my avatar. Now that the real Thomspon is gone, I'll probably discontinue using that avatar for the forseeable future. But when I last brought my HST out of inventory, I had him hugging a babe at a firing range-- which is, when you think about it, actually not a bad way to remember him. So here's to Gonzo, who'll always be remembered as a role model of mine in both worlds.