Curiosity Did Not Kill This Cat: Studs Terkel, 1912-2008

Back in the lonely old days when I was HASTAC's primary blogger, mypostings were more like Old School newspaper columns from my childhood in Chicago reading Mike Royko and then interviewsconducted by Studs Terkel. Studs died this week, at age 96, aprogressive, cantankerous old fighter--and a communicator until theend.

I met Studs only once, a long time ago, when I was still living in Chicago. I was participating in some events for a group of Vietnamese refugees in Chicago, and he was the honorary head of the program and he invited us all to his rambling old house, a beautiful antique amid a devastated area of Chicago populated by newly arrived immigrants, many of them illegals, from all over the world as well as impoverished African Americans, Mexican and Latinos, and Native Americans. He himself preferred to look one step above a homeless person (he often said his wife Ida was the only thing separating him from looking like a bum all the time). I'm told Uptown has become a very chic area and I'm sure it has. Studs' house must be a jewel amid the rehab splendor, but until he died, he continued to look like the same down-market guy:the red checked shirt, blue jacket, rumpled hat. He interviewed everyone, never gave up his progressive politics, and became a legend.

I didn't always agree with Studs but I loved it that he never stopped being curious. It pleases me enormously that he has said he would like his epitaph to read "Curiosity Did Not Kill This Cat." Except there is likely to be no epitaph since he doesn't want to be buried. Rather, he wants his ashes and Ida's scattered around Bug House Square, a famous historic site in Chicago where anarchists met and organized in the late nineteenth century and where many generations of political activists have organized ever since and where, at least by legend (I've never actually witnessed this myself), anyone could jump up on a soapbox on Sundays and say anything they wanted to anyone who would listen.

Rather like the Internet.

Studs said he knew it would be illegal to have his and his wife's ashes scattered there, but he wanted his friends to do it anyway. As he said, "It's against the law. Let 'em sue us."

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-studs-terkel-dead,0,2321576.... That's the link to a marvelous obituary by Chicago Tribune writer RickKogan from which these quotes are taken.

The image is courtesy of Flickr member Dread Pyrate Seamus. Click on the image for more of the photostream and full documentation.