Feb 1, 2007

Molly Ivins

by Cliopatria

Molly Ivins died today after a long fight with cancer. Her intelligence and caustic wit combined with her Texas accent (and Texas brashness) to make her one of the best fiercely liberal journalists of the last 30 years.

I was first introduced to her writing in the mid 1970s when I spent some time in Austin. The newspaper she edited then, The Texas Observer was available on many street corners there, and I quickly got hooked on the combination of fine reporting, hard hitting prose, and fierce moral outrage. Though I did not read her as regularly as I would have liked after that heyday, any time I passed a column of hers, whether in print or on the web, I stopped to look, and to think.

A lot of people are going to miss her.

PS I don't know how I forgot to say this. She was just so much fun!

More Comments:

david maclaren mcdonald - 2/2/2007

Since all of the sanitized obituaries refer to the end of Ivins's career at the NYT by invoking an inopportune locution she employed while covering a chicken festival, the phrase in question merits elaboration. I heard an interview with her, doubtless on NPR, in which she referred to the story that got her fired, because she described the centrepiece of the festival as a "gang-pluck." Vintage Ivins, I'd say.