THE HONEY BADGER

Welcome to the Front Porch!!

Let's jump in the Time Machine with Tom Terrific and revisit some of mid 50's culture. It has some hints for us today!

It was, for 'real' men, and boys, Hemingway inspired. The heroes were swashbuckiling rugged individualists, cut from an amoral cloth, who had manly adventures, drank manly amounts of alcohol, and departed the scene leaving broken hearts, or carrying their own broken heart. As often as not, both.

John Wayne was emerging, Clark Gable was fading, and Gary Cooper was Howard Roark in THE FOUNTAINHEAD", while Patricia Neal was Dominique. Cooper was far better remembered for his iconic role as reluctant sheriff in "High Noon."

The 50's-early 60's magazine of supremacy was "Playboy". And the cliche' was actually right: the reading was better than the pictures. Hugh Hefner bestowed his hedonistic philosophy in installments, and featured authors included, among many, Ian Fleming and Robert Ruark. Fleming has weathered history nicely, Ruark not so much.

Mom always got Dad a "Playboy" subscription for Christmas, and I was allowed to read the magazine. Nerd that I was, I really READ the magazine.

Ruark wrote about men in the Hemingway tradition. His two most popular novels were SOMETHING OF VALUE and UHURU. Both were huge back then. Try to find an American lit grad who has even heard of them now. One Christmas, Ruark's latest, and last book, appeared for Dad under the tree. It was THE HONEY BADGER. After Dad finished it, I read it. I cried at the end. It was more of my THE CATCHER IN THE RYE than THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. I really didn't know what it was saying to me, but whatever it was, it was profound.

Kathy brought me a copy of Ruark's THE HONEY BADGER from some yard sale a month ago. I had referenced it on occasion as being influential in my adolescence. Right now, it's sort of one of my bathroom books. I mix it with Dave Barry and the jokes in the new, slimmer "Reader's Digest."

Watching DC 8/28 this weekend, I had a realization of the journey, which is bringing us back full circle, to our cultural roots. DC 8/28 could not have happened 50 years ago. Woodstock could. And THE HONEY BADGER.

The hero of THE HONEY BADGER, Alexander Barr, was a thinly veiled Robert Ruark. Barr was an author, ex-Navy Commander, often brooding and self-absorbed except when he was drinking and partying with NYC's 'finest' women.

While the complete swaggering Dude, including African safaris, hangin' out with Joe DiMaggio, he was at the same time a lost puppy in a world without foundational moral compasses. He was a good man, and a solipsistic cad.

We'll let Alec tell you from whence came the title of this semi-autobiographical book:

"There is a bloody brave little animal called the honey badger in Africa. It may be the meanest animal in the world. It kills for malice and for sport, and it does not go for the jugular---it goes straight for the groin. It has a hell of a lot in common with the modern American woman."

Whew. Hot, toxic stuff. But that's the way it "was" for all the lost puppy dog males of the 50's and early 60's.

(Interesting aside, Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel did a show on Honey Badgers a few years ago. Fascinating. Groins aside, they crave honey. So much so that they will intentionally nose into a hive and allow the bees to kill themselves stinging the badger, after which he enjoys his treat. Sometimes mid-operation, he's in so much pain he walks away from the task for a while, then returns and finishes his juicy mission).

Now I'm not suggesting anyone run right out to the nearest church bizarre and look for a dog-eared copy of THE HONEY BADGER. I'm merely noting, optimistically, that we are in a cultural evolution, away from the things that have made today's absolute insanity the reality, and back to "basics" that many of us have never had the pleasure of enjoying.

Got a favorite old read that no one's probably heard of? Tell us!!





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