Thursday, April 12, 2007

Vonnegut

"I just want to say that George W. Bush is the syphilis president."...

Not long ago we spoke on the phone. I asked Kurt how he was. "Too fucking old," he replied.
Peace, bro.

UPDATE:

The following by SteveG is taken from the comments. See also Steve's obituary of Vonnegut here.
Kurt is up in Heaven now.

"Do you know what a Humanist is? I am honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that functionless capacity. We Humanists try to behave well without any expectation of rewards or punishments in an afterlife. We serve as best we can the only abstraction with which we have any real familiarity, which is our community.

We had a memorial services for Isaac a few years back, and at one point I said, "Isaac is up in Heaven now." It was the funniest thing I could have said to a group of Humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, "Kurt is up in Heaven now." That’s my favorite joke."

3 comments:

SteveG said...

Kurt is up in Heaven now.

"Do you know what a Humanist is? I am honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that functionless capacity. We Humanists try to behave well without any expectation of rewards or punishments in an afterlife. We serve as best we can the only abstraction with which we have any real familiarity, which is our community.

We had a memorial services for Isaac a few years back, and at one point I said, "Isaac is up in Heaven now." It was the funniest thing I could have said to a group of Humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, "Kurt is up in Heaven now." That’s my favorite joke."

troutsky said...

The world is poorer today.He sits next to Twain and Spinoza on my shelf.I sent ten copies of his "Man Without a Country" as Christmas gifts last year and got some interesting thankyous. I need to go for a long walk.

By the way, I am "tagging" you in this Thinking Blogger Award thing.Kind of like a chain letter when you are busy, more guilt and duty. Your welcome.(Seriously, this is my favorite blog and i hope others may visit.)

helmut said...

Thanks, Troutsky. I'm not sure, though, what I'm supposed to do.