- Source: Hey Rube (book)
Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness is a book written by Hunter S. Thompson, consisting of 83 articles split into three parts. The articles were first published on ESPN.com's Page 2 under Thompson's column Hey Rube. First published in mid-2004, the book contains articles from November 20, 2000, to October 13, 2003. It is sub-titled, Modern History from the Sports Desk.
This was the final book Thompson published before his death in February 2005.
Synopsis
Most of the columns were written primarily as sports commentary, but tend to branch into other subjects—commonly politics and social commentary—either due to a perceived relevance to the sports news, or as a result of Thompson's natural discursive tendencies. Some articles are focused on subjects entirely outside sports, such as "Fear and Loathing in America" and "Love Blooms in the Rockies", which deal with the 9/11 attacks and Thompson's marriage, respectively.
Thompson also chimes in on world events at the time of writing the articles. He voices his distaste for the 2000 presidential election, promotes warning as he writes through September 11, and tells of his crusade to free Lisl Auman, who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection to the murder of a police officer.
Included in Hey Rube is a copy of a personal report written about Thompson during his time in the United States Air Force at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. It requests that he be reassigned duties and advises that Thompson should not do any unauthorized writing or accept outside employment with local media. Thompson also includes a personal political statement and an “Honor Roll” which includes the names of such figures as Johnny Depp, Fidel Castro, Al Gore, and Anita Thompson.
The title is taken from the 19th century slogan "Hey, Rube!", a slang term of circus folk used to rally other carnies to their aid during a fight with a patron from the local town. Thompson elaborates in the introduction on the meaning of the term and the zeitgeist of old-fashioned circuses from the golden era that spawned the term.
Included articles
Part One
The New Dumb
The Fix Is In
Welcome to Generation Z
The White House Disease
Get Ready for Sainthood
The Xmas Vice
The Curse of Musburger
Cruel Twist in the Coaching Business
The NFL Sucks...Another League Bites the Dust...Rich Kids with Weapons
Slow Week for Sports, in Politics
Lynching in Denver
Mad Cow Disease Comes to the NBA
Death in the Afternoon
XFL, R.I.P.
The Most Horrible Curse in Sports
Urgent Warning to Gamblers: Beware the Ideas of March
I Told You It Was Wrong
Where Were You When the Fun Stopped?
Running Away with the Circus
NBA and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness
Bad Craziness at Owl Farm
Can the Three Stooges Save the NBA?
Kentucky Derby and Other Gambling Disasters
Quitting the Gambling Business While I'm Ahead
The Most Dangerous Sport of All
Patrick Roy and Warren Zevon- Two Champions at the Top of Their Game
Wild Days at the Sports Desk
Eerie Lull Rattles the Sports World
Olympic Disaster in Utah
The Wisdom of Nashville and the Violence of Jack Nicholson- A Football Story
Part Two
Fear and Loathing in America: The Beginning of the End
When War Drums Roll
Will Sports Survive Bin Laden?
Stadium Living in the New Age
Football in the Kingdom of Fear
Foul Balls and Rash Predictions
Getting Weird for Devil's Day
The Yankees are Dead: Long Live the Yankees
The Man Who Loved Sport Too Much
The Shame of Indianapolis
Failure, Football, and Violence on the Strip
Madness in Honolulu
Break Up the Ravens
Pay Up or Get Whipped
Getting Braced for the Last Football Game
Sodomized at the Airport: Are Terrorists Seizing Control of the NFL? And Who Let It Happen?
Slow Dance in Rap Town
Dr. Thompson in Beirut
Dr. Thompson Is Back from Beirut
The NFL: We Will March on a Road of Bones
Part Three
A Wild and Wooly Tale of Sporting Excess
My 49er Habit
Don't Let This Happen to You
Grantland Rice Haunts the Honolulu Marathon
Honolulu Marathon is Decadent and Depraved
Public Shame and Private Victory
Shooting the Moon with the Raiders
The Last Super Bowl
Extreme Behavior in Aspen
Billionaire Swine and Kiwi Catastrophe
Fleeced by Ed Bradley
Love Blooms in the Rockies
Love in a Time of War
A Sad Week in America
The Doomed Prefer Oakland
The Tragedy of Naked Bowling
West Coast Offense
Great Fleecing in Woody Creek: Lakers Staggered in Series Opener
The Sport of Kings
The Good, the Bad, and the Vicious
Rewarding the Ugly
Killed by a Speeding Hummer
When in Doubt, Bet the Dark Side
Welcome to the Big Darkness
The Nation's Capital
Speed Kills and Other Football Wisdom
Nightmare in Hollywood
Speed Will Rule the NFL This Year
The Bush League
Boxing Sucks
George Plimpton
Victory
Wisdom
Honor Role
External links
Thompson's Hey Rube articles archived at ESPN.com