"When the going gets weird, the weird go pro"

«DENVER, Colorado - Hunter S. Thompson's ashes will be blasted from a cannon mounted inside a 53-foot-high (16.15 meter-high) sculpture of the journalist's "gonzo fist" emblem, his wife said Tuesday.

The cannon shot, planned sometime in August on the grounds of his Aspen-area home, will fulfill the writer's long-cherished wish. "It's expensive, but worth every penny," Anita Thompson said. "I'd like to have several explosions. He loved explosions". Thompson, 67, shot himself in the head on February 20 after a long and flamboyant career that produced such new journalism classics as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and cast his image as a hard-charging, drug-crazed daredevil. The cannon shot will be part of a larger public celebration of Thompson's life (…) She said the gonzo fist will be mounted on a 100-foot pillar, making the monument 153 feet (46.63 meters) high. It will resemble Thompson's personal symbol, a fist on an upthrust forearm, sometimes with "Gonzo" emblazoned across it. Anita Thompson has said the monument will be a permanent fixture on the writer's 100-acre property. She said planning for the fist has been guided by a video of Thompson and longtime illustrator-collaborator Ralph Steadman, recorded in the late 1970s when they visited a Hollywood funeral home and began mapping out the cannon scheme.» in www.cnn.com (05/04/2005)

O homem, cumprindo o seu lema de vida que dá título a este post, nunca fez as coisas por menos. Chamem-lhe bêbado, drogado, arruaceiro, amante de armas, louco, dissimulado... o que se quiser. Uma coisa é certa. Para além de um talento literário único, era um genuíno rebelde dentro de uma América que nunca teve a capacidade necessária para lidar com os seus desalinhados.

Como refere a sua recente víuva: "He loved explosions"... a senhora não podia estar mais certa!