As a young Texas Jew, he was always aligned with the oppressed and was multicultural before it was cool, as evidenced by his passion for hot and sour soup. He immediately established himself as a Lone Star State lone star, when at age 7 he played chess grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky in Houston, letting the older man win so as not to hurt his feelings. That he’s never killed anyone makes him that much more of a rarity, moral beacon and American hero of our time.īorn in Chicago, he moved to Texas before his training wheels blew out, while he let his family ride in the U-Haul hitched to the back of his Schwinn tricycle. Simpson, Ted Bundy and Charles Manson combined. He’s shaken more hands, posed for more selfies and kissed more girl babies barely over the age of 18 than O.J. Wherever the Kinkster goes, he’s ten steps ahead of the crowd who, when not trampling over each other in a mad rush to hang Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, have loved his songs, his concerts, his jokes, his books, his runs for political office, his mere presence.

Rudyard Kipling once wrote that “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,” but Kipling had never met Kinky and apparently was riding the wrong twain. The exception in this great divide is the non-conforming, free-spirited, follow-the-bouncing-testicles allure of Kinky Friedman, among whose utterly unique characteristics is his uncanny ability to appeal to MAGA-hatted Tea Party animals as well pansexual Marxist vegans. Americans seem unable to share a song, a beer, a joke or a toke without strangling each other.

Willie charles whitman