Admired Work

Bourdain

I am trying to find words for my friend. I will post something here later if they ever come. For now, just know how much Tony Bourdain — for all his wit and sharp edges, for all his grandiose and larger-than-life persona — was a genuinely good man and careful colleague. And that doesn’t begin to express how empty the world feels this morning.

 

***

Also, I have been banned from Twitter, and as I am at this moment indifferent to removing the tweets they insist are violative of their rules, it is unclear when I will return to that framework.  So I’m hoping that if I post anything remotely meaningful about Tony, others will do me the favor of linking it beyond this digital cul de sac.

Suffice to say that while you can arrive on Twitter and disseminate the untethered and anti-human opinion that mothers who have their children kidnapped and held incommunicado from them at the American border are criminals — and both mother and child deserve that fate — or that 14-year-old boys who survive the Holocaust are guilty of betraying fellow Jews when there is no evidence of such, you CANNOT wish that the people who traffic in such vile shit should crawl off and die of a fulminant venereal rash. Slander is cool, brutality is acceptable. But the hyperbolic and comic hope that a just god might smite the slanderer or brutalizer with a deadly skin disorder is somehow beyond the pale.

Die of boils, @jack.

Seriously.  As far as I’m concerned, your standards in this instance are exactly indicative of why social media — and Twitter specifically — is complicit in transforming our national agora into a haven for lies, disinformation and the politics of totalitarian extremity. The real profanity and disease on the internet is untouched, while you police decorum.

 

50 Comments

  • Hiya David.

    I’ve been an annoyingly fastidious fan of yours for years and I honestly believe I was wholly responsible in my my teens for introducing, via methods assisted by thanatophobia, ALL of Manchester, England to The Wire. Sorry for trying to sound clever and for the (presumably) terrible grammar; I’m not a writer. I had no idea you’d visited us in 2001, let alone been (however briefly) with Anthony Bourdain. I love him as well, obviously. Do you think you’ll ever visit us again? And if you do, fancy a pint? I know some good pubs and I like Woodrell, Leonard and Higgins.

    Thank you for Homicide- and the rest. I’m really sorry about the loss of your friend. He was a brilliant man. We could see that from all the way over here.

    Joe

  • Another option to consider would be to open an account on a like-minded Mastodon instance, which offers a similar experience to twitter but where things tend to stay more civil and enjoyable.
    Just a suggestion. https://joinmastodon.org/

  • You suspended from Twitter but Donald still tweeting?? That’s as bad as Treme being canceled and CSI-New Orleans still being on TV. What is wrong with this world?

  • I retweeted your tribute to my three followers, lol. Seriously, Twitter has problems. I think I mentioned this elsewhere, but once I had my account suspended for going after some prick who was gloating about how great the Alabama church bombing was. Their policies are utterly devoid of common sense.

  • Mr. Simon!! Miss you on Twitter, though I agree with not removing your posts. Donated and and put in for a billion chances to win the lunch contest!!!! Just kidding, it wasn’t a billion, I’m poor… but that spinny wheel at the end.. cruel AND genius.. take my money, I just want to spin again!! Fingers crossed and hope to see tweets from you soon!! And late on the condolences, but so sorry for the loss of your good friend. ??

  • I had no idea that Tony Bordain was a consultant on Treme and then to realize that the realism that existed in Kim Dicken’s role was informed by him was like a thunderclap of recognition of why I loved that character so much. Now she fights off zombies but I will always remember how insightful that part of Treme was about food, kitchens, chefs and New Orleans.

  • “…or that 14-year-old boys who survive the Holocaust are guilty of betraying fellow Jews when there is no evidence of such…” If you’re referring to George Soros, there IS evidence of that very thing. Soros, in an interview on 60 Minutes, bragged about turning Jews over to the Gestapo, along with any Christian families that harbored them. He described his participation as “exciting.”

    You may want to do a little further research before bloviating, as though you were some sort of intellect. Clearly, the VD you wish upon those with whom you disagree has built tunnels throughout your grey matter.

    • I’m sorry, you’ve mistaken this blog and the opportunity to reply here as a chance to slander people incompetently as if you were in the lower rungs of a Brietbart comment site. No, you fucking scrote, I am entirely aware of the 60 Minutes interview that the meme-sucking shitmuzzles keep trumpeting as evidence. It is exactly not what they fucking claim it to be. Soros said no such thing. That you offer it here qualifies you instantaneously as wholly fecal. And the mere fact that your mother went ahead went to full term with your own syphillitic misadventure in no way qualifies you to render any diagnosis in others.

  • Mr. Simon–now that you have been banned from twitter is there any chance that you might post some of your thoughts on your blog more regularly? I for one always found it to be an excellent forum for spirited, informed, debate and discussion. Much preferable to the short bursts on twitter which tend to degenerate into insults and profanity from all concerned. Just a thought.

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