With all of the horse-shit ongoing about Don Imus, how can we let a person like Kurt Vonnegut just slip into history?

Kurt Vonnegut -- the greatest author in my lifetime!
But you know? That's exactly as he would have had it. It was, in a sense, his last little joke on life itself.

And, if my pastor (Kerry Haynes of the Faith Community Baptist Church in Ocean Shores, Washington) is even 25% clever, he will open his sermon tomorrow with .. "The joke's on you Kurt! Whatcha think about the scenery in heaven?"

My eyes still moisten a little (especially this week) when I think of some of the humor (yes, really!) in Slaughterhouse Five or one of the things he wrote last year--or the year before maybe--when he wrote or said something like, "We need a really action-packed impeachment to liven things up around here!" (I'll leave it for you to Google up his exact quote.)

He hated war and its sadness/madness more than anything else in life, I think, and one of his funnier discourses while reminiscing about his time at Stalag 14 during World War II was the following:

"During the war, my whole division was destroyed and the Germans took those of us who had survived to this prisoner-of-war camp called Stalag 4B. The camp was full of British officers, who were incredibly kind and welcoming. We were hungry and cold and filthy and they fed us and put on this play to cheer us up. The play was Cinderella, with a male Cinderella, of course. I still remember a line from it - it was one of the best things I've ever heard in my life. When the clock struck 12, Cinderella turned to the audience and said, 'Goodness me, the clock has struck! Alack a day and fuck my luck!' "

Of course, as he grew older, the soldiers who really carry the burdens of war on their shoulders became relatively younger and younger. Once, I heard him on one of his television interviews refer to the kids in Iraq as "babies." He meant no disrespect ... nor do I. Whether it be Hiroshima or Dresden (where he spent some harrowing time) or Saigon or Seoul or Baghdad ... the down payment for "victory" in any war is death. There is no honor in "winning" a war.

But yes, I certainly feel honored and yes, "lucky" to have had so many wonderful books to read and reread over the years. Silly me ... I originally thought of him as a science fiction novelist way back when. Now, as I am writing this blog (teary eyed, yes) my bed is stacked with old paperbacks by a number of classic American authors, but the largest number of them, I believe, were written by Kurt Vonnegut, the greatest American writer of my lifetime ... no other even close!