SMALL FAVORS
Ivins, Molly
SMALL FAVORS Molly Ivins An Easy Laugh They called from Madison November 2 to tell me Erwin Knoll had died. That afternoon, when I went out to collect the mail, I found the familiar Progressive...
...Or so...
...I told Erwin years ago, the most liberal thing about me is that I'm good at guilt and—except for newspaper columns, which I do on some kind of automatic pilot—the only way editors ever get pieces out of me is to guilt-trip me...
...Erwin, the perfect anti-ideologue...
...Save it," say I, "and tape it to my computer screen with every new deadline date so Erwin can non-guilt-trip me from the grave...
...Erwin, do you have a political identity, I mean, can you describe yourself in programmatic terms...
...My boss, Liz Faulk, tapes Erwin's notes to my computer screen when The Progressive's deadline draws near...
...And there was never anyone easier to make laugh than Erwin Knoll* Molly Ivins, a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, appears in this space every month...
...And the other is freedom of speech, the First Amendment...
...If you are a younger journalist and no one ever tells you these stories, how are you to know that there's another way to do it...
...And so we sat there, the two of us, regaling the youngers with tales of Izzy Stone and Andrew Kopkind, Bob Sherrill and Ronnie Dugger, Frosty Troy and William Brann...
...The first notice, the second notice, the telephoned plea from Madison, the this-time-we-really-mean-it call...
...My own peculiar role at The Progressive is to provide regular instruction in the science of how to keep laughing, even though you've considered all the facts...
...she asked about Erwin's last note...
...Okay, okay, by four o'clock this afternoon, I promise...
...Victor Navasky is a master at this...
...I believe violence is never a solution...
...I'm not a communist or a socialist...
...Independent journalism in this country is likewise a rather endangered craft, or even art form, if you want to be pretentious...
...And it, too, has to be passed down from hand to hand...
...What free mind would ever abandon its intelligence to someone else's creed...
...I can tell you Erwin Knoll was kind, gentle, thoughtful, and had an exceptionally large mind...
...A whole different tradition...
...I don't have an agenda, I don't have a program," I said...
...Such an un-farewell note: just one of Erwin's kind, funny little verbal doodles and, for the first time ever, not a mention of my next deadline...
...I have only two irreducible principles...
...Still useful, though dead.' He'd love that...
...Which he knew, too...
...Sign me up for Erwin's Party...
...What shall we do with this...
...I guess I'm a left-libertarian and a populist, and I believe in the Bill of Rights the way some folks believe in the Bible...
...Being an even better liberal than I, he was convinced he could get me to work by positive reinforcement alone...
...As Johnny Faulk used to say, that jerked the stopper...
...And there never was such a magazine for making you consider all the facts as Erwin Knoll's Progressive...
...Hell...
...That afternoon, when I went out to collect the mail, I found the familiar Progressive envelope with its familiar copy of the magazine and the familiar note from Erwin...
...One is nonviolence: I am a pacifist...
...We don't want to just put it in the files...
...They have to actually play with jazz musicians to get the sense of fun and improvisation...
...So every month came the wry note about how great the last column was, and by the way, here's the next official deadline...
...Adjectives never do as much as stories, I think...
...The last evening we spent together, talking to young staffers on his magazine, was inspired by something Ben Sidran, the great jazz pianist from Madison, said about his tradition: that jazz is an art that has to be passed down by hand, for young musicians to just listen to the great recordings is not enough...
...Knoll and I had a running joke: Ever since I've written a column for this magazine, I have been abysmal about deadlines...
...While we were having a beer at the Cafe Montmartre in Madison in late October, I got stuck trying to explain my politics to some younger members of The Progressive staff...
...It doesn't mean near as much as telling real stories about him...
...But by four, the day is over, and the next morning is just as good, so what-the-hey...
...That success is not becoming a talking-head celebrity, saying what everyone else says...
...Of course not," said Erwin promptly...
...It's always there by noon...
...Erwin refused to play the game...
Vol. 59 • January 1995 • No. 1
