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Molly Ivins, Our Magnet

James K. Galbraith [ www.huffingtonpost.com/james-k-galbraith ]
Posted: February 7, 2007 03:08 PM

The Texas Observer has published my tribute to Molly Ivins (below). I won't repeat it here, except for a small part. The "final Fridays" were a monthly event, held for years at Molly's house until her health made it impossible to go on.

"I used to go to the final Fridays late, after the slam poets were done, after the party had quieted down some and mainly the bitter-enders were left, just so I could sit among the butts and bottles like a bad child, and listen to the rowdy tales and feel part of our group - the hard-core liberals in Texas. And just so I could watch her flash that smile, and hear her call me sweetheart now and then.

"Molly was our magnet, our long memory and our cutting edge. She had a fine, sharp pen, but she was at her best, I think, at home, in company, spinning tales, honing her perfect comic pitch, that fine mix of the telling and tawdry that so captured the spirit of Texas."

Sunday morning after this appeared, I received an email, from a retired professor of English in the very deep South. I paraphrase:

"Galbraith, what do you mean by that phrase, 'spirit of Texas?' I stopped reading Ivins when she started to use obscenity. Is that a reflection of the spirit of Texas?"

So I wrote back, a two-line email, quoting the immortal lyrics of Tom Lehrer:

"As the judge remarked the day that he acquitted my Aunt Hortense, To be smut, it must be utterly without redeeming social importance."

An email came back: "Truthfully, I do not understand."

My reply was roughly this:

"Molly Ivins did not use obscenity. Obscenity is committed by the strong against the weak. Gentility is how the weak are obliged to submit. When you talk back, in whatever language is effective, that's not obscenity, but courage.

"And by the way, this business of dirty words is culturally specific. Around here, there are no dirty words. And that, of course, is what I meant by 'spirit of Texas.' "

We sent Molly off Sunday afternoon, at the First United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, to the strains of Marcia Ball singing "Great Balls of Fire." Indeed.

Copyright © 2007 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis added)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-k-galbraith/molly-ivins-our-magnet_b_40657.html


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Funnier Than Me

James K. Galbraith | February 09, 2007 (issue of)

She was only seven years older, which means that when I moved here, she was barely 40. The hard part, now, is that we won’t just go on appearing, sometimes side by side, always on the same side, in The Texas Observer.

I used to go to the Final Fridays late, after the slam poets were done, after the party had quieted down some and mainly the bitter-enders were left, just so I could sit among the butts and bottles like a bad child and listen to the rowdy tales and feel part of our group—the hard-core liberals in Texas. And just so I could watch her flash that smile, and hear her call me sweetheart now and then.

Molly was our magnet, our long memory and our cutting edge. She had a fine, sharp pen, but she was at her best, I think, at home, in company, spinning tales, honing her perfect comic pitch, that fine mix of the telling and tawdry that so captured the spirit of Texas.

Of course she was never well-behaved in public either. And her tough, funny vulgarity did more than just cut through crap. It dispelled fear. It remade how you tell truth and confront power. It forged the bonds that are only made with an earthy laugh. In this way, for most who read her and everyone who heard her speak, she broke the spell of the Bush years. The face of liberalism became Molly’s face—and who could resist it?

My father loved her (and she him). They were exactly in tune; he saw himself in her. Their purposes and their methods and in some ways their backgrounds and much of their humor were the same. He never came to Austin without saying, “Fix up lunch with Molly Ivins.” Our last good meeting came after he died; though she was quite weak, I spent several hours diverting her with stories of his last days. Once or twice I made a move to leave, but she didn’t want to stop.

My new book is dedicated, “To Molly Ivins. Funnier than me.”

Economist James K. Galbraith is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Copyright © 2007 The Texas Observer

http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2415


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Table of Contents | Vol. 99, No.3
February 09, 2007

Constitutional Fortitude
by Gary Cartwright
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2395

Living it Loud
by Myra Macpherson
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2397

Greatest of the Great
by Bernard Rapoport
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2398

There is Humor in Heaven
by Bill Moyers
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2400

With Us in Spirit
by Jim Hightower
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2401

Tell 'em How Much Fun it Was
by Adam Hochschild
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2402

When Molly Played Kansas
by Mark Russell
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2403

Hi, Sweet Pea
by Carlton Carl
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2404

Cooking with Molly
by Ellen Sweets
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2405

Molly at the Times
by Adam Clymer
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2406

Helping Yankees Understand Molly
by Anthony Zurcher
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2409

The Molly Days
by Kaye Northcott
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2413

The Last River Run
by Dave Richards
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2414

Funnier Than Me
by James K. Galbraith
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2415 (above)

An Excellent Day
by Richard Aregood
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2416

Texas All the Way
by Dan Rather
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2417

How I Met Molly Ivins
by Steven Fromholz
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2418

Driving with Miss Molly
by Doug Foster
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2419

That's Right, You're Not From Texas
by Garrison Keillor
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2420

Struggling with the Red Queen
by Bud Shrake
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2421

After the Storm
by Sissy Farenthold
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2423

One Thing About You
by Ronnie Dugger
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2424

Courage and Laughter
by Anne Lamott
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2425

---

A Tribute to Molly Ivins
Larry L. King | Web Exclusive
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2396

A Tribute to Molly Ivins
Billy Porterfield | Web Exclusive
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2399

A Tribute to Molly Ivins
President George W. Bush | Web Exclusive
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2407

A Tribute to Molly Ivins
Governor Rick Perry | Web Exclusive
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2408

A Tribute to Molly Ivins
Donna E. Shalala | Web Exclusive
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2410

A Tribute to Molly Ivins
Dave McNeely | Web Exclusive
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2411

A Tribute to Molly Ivins
Dave Barry | Web Exclusive
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2412

A Tribute to Molly Ivins
Raymond Bonner | Web Exclusive
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2422

A Tribute to Molly Ivins
Gene Weingarten | Web Exclusive
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2426

A Tribute to Molly Ivins
Butch Hancock | Web Exclusive
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2427

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Copyright © 2007 The Texas Observer

http://www.texasobserver.org/issue.php?iid=229


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Molly Ivins's Articles (from January 1999 forward)
http://www.texasobserver.org/author_bib.php?aid=3


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also (items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=16682398 (and preceding) and following