More Saturday sessions (Molly Ivins)

When I'd heard of Molly's passing earlier this year, I was greatly saddened that we'd never hear her voice of reason again. I'd listened to one of her audiobooks [the title escapes me at the moment, of course], and I'd kept up with her column at AlterNet for the past few years. One of the things I appreciated about her was her sense of Texas political history--whenever she referenced past shenanigans, she left me with sense of someone who was really passionate within her career. While I can't say the same about myself, I can still admire others who have achieved that.

Anyway, when I saw that there was to be a tribute to Molly at the festival, I was glad that there was a place made for her fans to attend without impinging on a funeral/memorial service (IMO, those services are for family and friends who actually knew her). A crew for C-SPAN filmed the proceedings in the First United Methodist Church [and I was able to snarf it as a landmark! the church, not the crew]. The sanctuary was pretty packed downstairs, and from my vantage point, quite a few people were upstairs also. I've no idea what the official capacity is in there, but I'd bet they could have filled a bigger venue had they one available.

I have to say that I deeply regret that I never took a chance to see her speak, and I'm making this assessment based on only seven minutes worth of documentary shown during the tribute. I have at least two of her books on my shelf, and I'll read those when I can [who knows, maybe I'll get all ambitious and host a Political Writings Challenge in "honor" of next year's elections]. Her last book, Bill of Wrongs, was available for sale and signing (by her writing partner, dear silly readers) during the festival, but our family is feeling poor at the moment, and I didn't want to make any frivolous purchases this weekend.

As I said before, Molly was admired for being someone who maintained a lifelong passion for her career, and I think that political writing as we know it has lost a voice we could still use around here.

Long day today, had lunch with DH, did grocery sopping on the fly, and voted at the Baptist Church (and once again managed to not burst into flame--I think it helps that the polling is actually held in the auditorium) on the way home. I should do another short one, but I think I should hit the sack until I fall asleep.