'In a statement, Thompson's widow and his son said: "Though we will miss him bitterly, we understand his decision. Let the world know that Dr. Hunter S. Thompson died with his glass full, a fearless man, a warrior." '

What a beautiful thing to say. A fitting inscription for the tomb, except that there won't be one, as his burial wishes were to have his ashes shot out of a cannon.

The author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1971) and a ferocious journalist, Thompson held nothing back.

'He once suggested former President Bush should be brutally stomped by voters. He called former Vice President Hubert Humphrey "a hopelessly dishonest old hack," compared the late Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine to a "vicious 200-pound river rat" and frequently dismissed former President Clinton as a white-trash hillbilly. '

'A critic of Thompson's work once said he feared the author might someday lose his edge and "lapse into good taste." Judging by many of his comments, he rarely did. '

Good taste or no, as a former Mainer, I can attest that Muskie did indeed bear some resemblence to a muskrat and I have a lot of admiration for people who aren't afraid to say(and write about) what they think. It's a shame they usually end up dead before their time.

Quotes are from CVC

So here's to Hunter, may his ashes explode in posthumous glory, spreading his words far and wide.