Hey Rube (book)

"Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness" is a book consisting of 83 articles in three parts written by Hunter S. Thompson, author and father of Gonzo journalism. The articles were first published on ESPN.com's "Page 2" under Thompson’s popular column "Hey Rube". First published in mid-2004, the book contains articles that span from November 20, 2000 to October 13, 2003. It is additionally sub-titled, "Modern History From The Sports Desk".

Synopsis

Using his unique “Gonzo journalism” style of writing, Thompson blends sports writing and American social commentary together in an entertaining, insightful, and sometimes off-the-wall manner. Thompson opens the door and sheds light on other subjects such as sports gambling, celebrity friends, insight into his own lifestyle at Owl Farm (his Woody Creek compound), and politics.

Thompson also chimes in on world events at the time of writing the articles. He voices his distaste for the 2000 presidential election, promotes warning as he writes through September 11th, and tells of his crusade to free Lisl Auman from a harsh lifetime in prison sentence.

Included in "Hey Rube" is a copy of a personnel report written about Thompson during his time in the United States Air Force at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. It requests that he be reassigned duties and advises that Thompson should not do any unauthorized writing or accept outside employment with local media. Thompson also includes a personal political statement and an “Honor Roll” which includes the names of such figures as Johnny Depp, Fidel Castro, Al Gore, and Anita Thompson.

The title is taken from the 19th century slogan Hey, Rube!, a slang term of circus folk used to rally other carnies to their aid during a fight with a patron from the local town. Thompson elaborates in the introduction on the meaning of the term and the zeitgeist of old-fashioned circuses from the golden era that spawned the term.

Parts and Chapters

Foreword by John A. Walsh (ESPN.com)

Author’s Note

Part One

* The New Dumb
* The Fix Is In
* Welcome to Generation Z
* The White House Disease
* Get Ready for Sainthood
* The Xmas Vice
* The Curse of Musburger
* Cruel Twist in the Coaching Business
* The NFL Sucks…Another League Bites the Dust…Rich Kids with Weapons
* Slow Week for Sports, in Politics
* Lynching in Denver
* Mad Cow Disease Comes to the NBA
* Death in the Afternoon
* XFL, R.I.P.
* The Most Horrible Curse in Sports
* Urgent Warning to Gamblers: Beware the Ideas of March
* I Told You It Was Wrong
* Where Were You When the Fun Stopped?
* Running Away with the Circus
* NBA and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness
* Bad Craziness at Owl Farm
* Can the Three Stooges Save the NBA?
* Kentucky Derby and Other Gambling Disasters
* Quitting the Gambling Business While I’m Ahead
* The Most Dangerous Sport of All
* Patrick Roy and Warren Zevon- Two Champions at the Top of Their Game
* Wild Days at the Sports Desk
* Eerie Lull Rattles the Sports World
* Olympic Disaster in Utah
* The Wisdom of Nashville and the Violence of Jack Nicholson- A Football Story

Part Two

* Fear and Loathing in America: The Beginning of the End
* When War Drums Roll
* Will Sports Survive Bin Laden?
* Stadium Living in the New Age
* Football in the Kingdom of Fear
* Foul Balls and Rash Predictions
* Getting Weird for Devil’s Day
* The Yankees are Dead: Long Live the Yankees
* The Man Who Loved Sport Too Much
* The Shame of Indianapolis
* Failure, Football, and Violence on the Strip
* Madness in Honolulu
* Break Up the Ravens
* Pay Up or Get Whipped
* Getting Braced for the Last Football Game
* Sodomized at the Airport: Are Terrorists Seizing Control of the NFL? And Who Let It Happen?
* Slow Dance in Rap Town
* Dr. Thompson in Beirut
* Dr. Thompson Is Back from Beirut
* The NFL: We Will March on a Road of Bones

Part Three

* A Wild and Wooly Tale of Sporting Excess
* My 49er Habit
* Don’t Let This Happen to You
* Grantland Rice Haunts the Honolulu Marathon
* Honolulu Marathon is Decadent and Depraved
* Public Shame and Private Victory
* Shooting the Moon with the Raiders
* The Last Super Bowl
* Extreme Behavior in Aspen
* Billionaire Swine and Kiwi Catastrophe
* Fleeced by Ed Bradley
* Love Blooms in the Rockies
* Love in a Time of War
* A Sad Week in America
* The Doomed Prefer Oakland
* The Tragedy of Naked Bowling
* West Coast Offense
* Great Fleecing in Woody Creek: Lakers Staggered in Series Opener
* The Sport of Kings
* The Good, the Bad, and the Vicious
* Rewarding the Ugly
* Killed by a Speeding Hummer
* When in Doubt, Bet the Dark Side
* Welcome to the Big Darkness
* The Nation’s Capital
* Speed Kills and Other Football Wisdom
* Nightmare in Hollywood
* Speed Will Rule the NFL This Year
* The Bush League
* Boxing Sucks
* George Plimpton
* Victory
* Wisdom

Honor Role

Memorable Quotes

“…I have described them [sportswriters] as “a rude and brainless subculture of fascist drunks” and “a gang of vicious monkeys jacking off in a zoo cage” and “more disgusting by nature than maggots oozing out of the carcass of a dead animal…”
~ Hunter S. Thompson, "The White House Disease"

"We had just settled down to drink whiskey and bet when the night was shattered and ripped by a sudden explosion just in front of the house-a crashing of metal and fire and wild screams of animals. I ran out on the porch with a shotgun and a huge police spotlight, just in time to be knocked back by another explosion and a wall of flame on the road. Chickens squawked and peacocks screeched in the treetops. It was like a bomb that had been dropped on a jungle. Flaming chickens fell out of the sky and hissed as they died in the snow..."
~ Hunter S. Thompson, "Bad Craziness at Owl Farm"

"George W. Bush is an obvious example of the spiral of dumbness in action. But he is not alone. Other hideous examples are all around us from Mad Cow disease and the stock market plunge to the shutdown of Hollywood and the loss of TV from our lives. We live in times of diminishing expectations."
~ Hunter S. Thompson, "NBA and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness"

Details

Book Specs

First Printed: 2004
Reprinted: July 26, 2005
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
First Edition Paperback: 246 pages
Reprinted Paperback: 272 pages

Versions of Cover

2004 Cover:

Photo Credit: BC Books

2005 Cover:

Photo Credit: Simon & Schuster

Miscellaneous

* Hunter Thompson’s wife, Anita Thompson, is pictured with him on the 2005 reprint cover.
* [http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1996511 Thompson’s Hey Rube articles are archived at ESPN.com]
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1992213 Hunter S. Thompson’s last Page 2 ESPN article was an interview with actor Bill Murray about Thompson’s new sport, “Shotgun Golf”.]

References

* Thompson S., Hunter. Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=F9PeeyqS19MC&dq=&pg=PP1&ots=QzdN7aCs1W&sig=9fh48WhecQSHssD8g6_H9KDtOxM&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fsource%3Dig%26hl%3Den%26q%3DHey%2BRube%253A%2BBlood%2BSport%252C%2Bthe%2BBush%2BDoctrine%252C%2Band%2Bthe%2BDownward%2BSpiral%2Bof%2BDumbness%2BModern%2BHistory%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BSports%2BDesk%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title#PPP1,M1 Excerpts from Hey Rube at Google Book Search]