So it goes

I woke up this morning to the very sad news that Mr. Kurt Vonnegut is in heaven now. Or he slipped into the chrono-synclastic infundibulum. Or something. He's dead, anyway.

Bless his heart.

Mr. Vonnegut famously threatened to sue the manufacturers of Pall Mall cigarettes for on account of they hadn't killed him despite their promise on the package to do so. Apparently he died of brain injuries sustained after falling down in his Manhattan apartment. Maybe his heirs can build a case against Brown & Williamson after all.

I make it a point to re-read as many of his books as I can every couple of years; my copies of some of the novels have worn out, but his words never do. Of his more recent efforts, this is one of my favorites. Among its gems:

"[...] But I’ll tell you one thing: I once had a high that not even crack cocaine could match. That was when I got my first driver’s license! Look out, world, here comes Kurt Vonnegut.

And my car back then, a Studebaker, as I recall, was powered, as are almost all means of transportation and other machinery today, and electric power plants and furnaces, by the most abused and addictive and destructive drugs of all: fossil fuels.

When you got here, even when I got here, the industrialized world was already hopelessly hooked on fossil fuels, and very soon now there won’t be any more of those. Cold turkey.

Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn’t like TV news, is it?

Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.

And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on."

Busy, busy, busy.