Vonnegut -- gone ... and Imus, too

The novelist Kurt Vonnegut has died.

As it happened, the last we heard from Vonnegut was via the radio show that Don Imus runs, the same radio show that MSNBC says it will no longer carry because of the racist remark Imus made about the Rutger's women's basketball team.

When he interviewed with Imus, Vonnegut, a chain-smoker of Pall Malls, expressed surprise had had lived as long as he had (he was 84.) This was in mid January.

This was one of those interviews that made the Imus show worth watching. Another recent interview that sparkled was his chat with Hank Williams Jr. There were many others with politicians, journalists, writers and musicians.

And then there was his nasty side, of which we wrote extensively two years ago, when he went on an insult-laden tired against MSNBC newswoman Contessa Brewer.

Imus took almost as much as he gave. We specifically remember his producer Bernard, in the guide of his running character "Cardinal Egan," referring to his boss as "Scrotum Face."

Frankly, though, we got to the point where we sort of tuned out what we didn't want to hear -- his constant insults of his weight-challenged sports announcer, for instance, as well as his various screeds about any multitude of things -- and simply waited for him to talk to someone we found interesting, which is easily accomplished in the age of the digital video recorder.

Even so, you just can't going around using the public airwaves to call people "nappy headed hos" and not expect repercussions. You just can't. And you shouldn't.

Let's just love everybody and try to understand each other. Howsabout that? Isn't that what JC was all about?

Still and all, we'll miss some of ol' Scortum Face's interviews in the early morning hours.
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ALSO, the journalist formerly known as Wonkette confesses how she fell under the spell of the I-Man, but says she's now seen the light.