Sitting Shiva in a Cowboy Hat

“Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.” - Richard Samet “Kinky” Friedman By Gordon Hopkins So here's a joke for ya. A cowboy, a Jew, a politician, a musician, a columnist, chess prodigy and a detective walk into a bar. They are all wearing the same hat. That hat belonged to Kinky Friedman. It isn't funny, but neither is the news that the Kinkster died yesterday at the age of 79. The child of Russian Jewish immigrants, born in Chicago, Illinois, but raised in Texas Hill Country, he played up the Texas/Jewish dichotomy hard in his country music career, headlining a band called the Texas Jewboys and releasing songs with titles like “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “Ride ’Em Jewboy.” I was exposed to the somewhat off-kilter humor of Kinky Friedman at an inappropriately early age, though I didn't realize it at the time. My father had something of a chauvinistic streak to him, which a lot of women couldn't tell was sincere or merely shtick. He was fond of quoting one of Kinky's more infamous songs, the anti-feminism ballad, “Get Yer Biscuits In The Oven And Yer Buns In The Bed (1973).” My father thought that was hilarious. My mother, somewhat less so. Not unlike my father, people were often unsure if Kinky was kidding or not. Either way, NOW (National Organization for Women) wasn't amused. That song earned him the “Male Chauvinist Pig Award” that same year. Do you remember Kinky's appearance on the old TV show, “Austin City Limits,” back in 1975? No? Neither do I. That's on account of it never aired. To date, it remains the only episode of that venerable program not to hit the airwaves. I have no idea what happened on that show to cause the prohibition. According to executive producer Terry Lickona, “I think it was a great show, and it might be as offensive today as it was back then.” Despite my strong-willed mother's preternatural intolerance for chauvinism (from anyone other my father, proving that a man can get away with anything as long as he's good-looking enough), she was also a fan of Kinky Friedman. Not of his music, but of his writing. He wrote a whole mess of mystery novels, with himself as the detective. He also wrote a very funny column for Texas Monthly, which he put on hold for his famous, or infamous, depending on your point of view, run for governor of Texas in 2006.Kinky was something of an agent provocateur, a sort of country/western Lenny Bruce, and you could never be sure if he was offending folks deliberately or entirely by accident. Kinky swore his campaign was not a joke but totally serious. On the other hand, he also said, “If elected, the first thing I'll do is demand a recount.” Either way, I have one of his campaign posters hanging on the wall in my dining room.I don't have much else to say. He could sing and he could write and he was funny and he was offensive. That strikes me as a full life. He was also eminently quotable, so I'll just leave you with just a few gems. “A fool and his money are soon elected.”“Politics is the only field of human endeavor where the more experience you have, the worse you get.”“Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.”

Jim Strayer

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