RIP PJO

“You can’t get good Chinese takeout in China and Cuban cigars are rationed in Cuba. That’s all you need to know about communism.” ― PJ O’Rourke, Give War a Chance

A melancholy goodbye to P.J. O’Rourke, dead at 74 — the funniest scribe of his generation.

Before all the recent unpleasantness (take your pick)… before smartphones hijacked the minds of every blissfully normal citizen… before we all had to declare a political major, I was lucky enough to interact with P.J. O’Rourke, twice.

As affable and regular as one could ever wish, he was a genuine anti-authoritarian. He dished it out accordingly and regardless of political stripe.

The First Meeting: IU, 1984

I covered an O’Rourke lecture appearance (and post-lecture reception) in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1984, during his mid-80s run of terrific commentary and even more terrifically humorous books. The event stuck with me, not just because of his performance, but because of how accessible he was afterward.

The Reunion: Austin, 2001

From 1999-2005, I reviewed non-fiction for media outlets. It was great fun, and one of my editors assigned me a phone Q&A with “PJO.” His book had been written months earlier, but hit the shelves just after 9/11, so our conversation wound up being more about events than about the book.

During the interview, I mentioned that I’d covered his IU appearance in ’84. That’s when he really opened up. He remembered the event vividly, and I believed it, when he added that his current wife is an IU Theta, only a few years older than I. (It was unclear whether he met her during that visit, but based on the spark created when I brought it up, it could very well have been.)

As we were concluding our chat, he said, “I’m giving a CATO talk in Austin — please come!”

I went. His speech was hilarious and pointed, and modified for the moment coming as it had just weeks after the attacks.

Afterward, I introduced myself. He handed me a copy of his book, in which he’d written, “For Stuart — Part of the vast rightwing conspiracy. Best wishes, P.J. O’Rourke”

My original, Director’s Cut review appears below.

*****

CEO of the Sofa by P.J. O’Rourke

10/4/2001

In his latest release, CEO of the Sofa, conservative wit P.J. O’Rourke takes aim at a broad range of targets including mobile phones, middle age and the Internet.

Best-known for his satirical travelogues including Give War a Chance and Holidays in Hell, the former National Lampoon editor has decided this time around to fire his caustic, stream-of-consciousness salvos from the comfort of home.

Inspired by Oliver Wendell Holmes’ 1858 essay collection The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, the author structures essays about fatherhood, cigars, the 2000 election, drug legalization, and the comparative pleasures of Venice, Italy versus The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas around chats with his wife, his two young children and his editorial assistant. 

Confined to the couch, CEO doesn’t approach the stomach-searing wickedness of O’Rourke’s best work. But even a mixed outing for one of America’s funniest writers remains big-league comedy. Die-hards won’t be disappointed. 

O’Rourke will visit Book People on Monday, October 15 at 7 p.m., and address a Cato Institute luncheon on the following day at the Four Seasons. (For tickets, log on to www.cato.org.) O’Rourke chatted with us October 4:

You once wrote, “humor comes to the fore when events render us impotent.” Where were you on September 11 and what do you think happens next?

O’Rourke: I was in Washington when it happened and as soon as I knew my family was safe, I went right downtown and started reporting. It was a remarkably calm day. Everyone was in shock, and they were certainly furious, but they weren’t flipping out. As to where we go from here, it’s anybody’s guess.

It’s strange: August now feels nostalgic.

O’Rourke: It does, doesn’t it? I saw President Clinton on the television the other morning, I guess because he got barred from practicing law before the Supreme Court – like somebody’d hire him to do it – and I had a momentary thing where I said to myself, “Who’s that guy again? He looks familiar…Oh, yeah.” Because he really belonged to the Britney Spears World that existed until a month ago. 

How will the attacks change things for you? Will you still travel and do the sort of political travelogue reporting you’d been doing?

O’Rourke: Well, I’m back at it again. At the moment it’s a little hard to tell where I’ll go. At The Atlantic Monthly right now, we’re wrestling with how deal with it as a monthly. Since we can’t get less than two months’ lead time, my editor’s decision has been to try and do stuff that is “snapshot of the moment,” with no attempt to pretend it’s not dated by the time it comes out. When and if that will take me off to Carjackistan, I don’t know yet. They may send me to a place like Egypt, to see how a very western-oriented country in the Muslim world has dealt with their own Islamic fundamentalism problems.

In the new book, you give George W. Bush a pretty balanced lashing, but a lashing nonetheless. How do you think he and his administration have handled this situation thus far?

O’Rourke: So far, so good, and yes, I didn’t think Bush was really a first-rate presidential candidate. But I have enormous relief about not having the other guy in, let alone the previous guy. I can just see Clinton crying in the wake of this, but not for long, and then blowing up an aspirin factory in Khartoum and declaring victory. The problem with Gore wouldn’t be Gore himself so much, but who’d be his secretaries of defense and state. And the possibility of it being Ralph Nader and Oprah is alarming. 

I’ve had a lot of democratic friends of mine say they’re really glad Bush is in, not because of the guy himself so much, but because of the people around him. These people obviously seem to be moving deliberately and reasoning it out and gathering information. 

I keep waiting for someone to point out the political correctness of the name change from the hawkish “Infinite Justice” to the very passive seeming “Enduring Freedom.”

O’Rourke: Oh, yes. Why don’t they just name these things Operation Alpha Bravo Charlie and be done with it? It offends me more with a sensitive name change that they have some sort of PR department generating these names in the first place. They ought to call it Operation F— You.

How do you think the media have performed during and since the attacks?

O’Rourke: Some of the incessant pulse-taking really makes one long for the days when you got the news over the telegraph. Obviously, in the first few days when there was still hope for the rescue mission and everyone was in shock, I actually think the broadcast media did a good job going on the air 24 hours a day. But since then, they’re basically still on 24 hours a day. It’s interesting that no new information doesn’t stop the journalism. And it’s not just the TV people, either. You watch these press conferences and the print people are asking, “When are you going to strike?” Like they’re going to tell you.

You’ve been a Republican and a Democrat and you’ve ultimately arrived at Libertarianism. If you were the Libertarian King, what would be different about America now?

O’Rourke: I’m for restrained government, but also, I’m not the kind of Libertarian that doesn’t believe there should be any government at all. I just spoke at a Cato Institute lunch in Chicago. It was interesting: during the Gulf War, Cato took a very antiwar stance and lost supporters, but things are different with this. The audience was very much on board to get rid of terrorism. Normally they’re about non-intervention, so it was strange to be in a situation that requires intervention.

As CEO of your own sofa in these trying times, will you now have to write-off any charges or otherwise downsize to appease the P.J. O’Rourke marketplace?

O’Rourke: Being a writer for a living isn’t the most lucrative thing on earth. I do a lot of business speaking, and a recession will cut into that. And if I’m off to Carjackistan, I’m not going to be able to address the National Storm Window Association.

As Sofa CEO, what’s your go-to channel when the commercial comes on?

O’Rourke: Aerobics. Not that I do them, I just like the leotards.