A Tribute to P.J. O’Rourke

Dear reader,

I write to you today with some sad news. P.J. O’Rourke, a legend in the literary field, and our courageous American Consequences Editor in Chief, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 74.

All of us here at American Consequences and our parent company Stansberry Research are with me when I say that the world has lost a great writer and an even better man. We were blessed to have P.J. at the helm of this magazine since its inception.

I’m confident that P.J. will go down in history as one of the most brilliant writers of his time. It was a true honor to be able to call him a colleague. I loved our editorial talks – including all the Zoom calls that have become so ingrained in our COVID-19 work lives. I always enjoyed hearing his insight and perspective on politics, world events, and the economy.

P.J. had a lot of concerns about the future, as so many of us now do. I know he feared the growing political divisions in our society. Sometimes we’d discuss those issues – as we thought about the best way to position our magazine each month.

I especially loved the moments when P.J. would share a moment from his past…

He had the ability to weave in an anecdote from his experiences on the front lines of history into our conversations about everyday politics – whether from his days in Belfast during the height of Northern Ireland’s “troubles” or from war-torn Bosnia. P.J. had seen it all.

But more than anything, P.J. had the ability to see through politics to the humanity in every situation.

On a personal note, I had admired P.J.’s writing long before I ever got the chance to work with him at American Consequences. My favorite book of his is Eat the Rich… He and I spoke at length about the lessons he had learned from studying different economies around the world.

All of us will miss him greatly. Today, I wanted to share with you an excerpt from one of P.J.’s many fine pieces. He wrote it in October 2021… just a few months before he died. I loved the piece so much that I sent it to every friend I have… I even read it out loud at the dinner table one evening!

P.J. enabled all of us to see the humor in everything – something that’s not always easy to do these days.

RIP P.J. We will always be grateful for the tremendous literary and intellectual contributions you have given us.

Regards,

Trish Regan
Publisher, American Consequences 

Out of Office

By P.J. O’Rourke

My story today is about the most responsible decision I’ve made in years… I played hooky from life for a week, basking in the banal ecstasy of doing absolutely nothing.

There’s an old Kinks lyric from their 1971 album “Muswell Hillbillies” – “If life’s for living, what’s living for?” And, having gone AWOL from life, I’m still not certain I know the answer to that cosmic question – but living sure as hell isn’t for answering e-mails.

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Just as we were putting this issue together, I skipped school. I skipped without so much as a call to the attendance office saying – in a high-pitched, female voice – “Hello, this is my mother… I mean Pat O’Rourke’s mother… He isn’t feeling well today… Or tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that…”

I played hooky from life for a week. Or maybe more than a week… I wasn’t counting. With no laptop, no iPad, no smartphone, (or cable TV or landline, for that matter) I wasn’t sure what day it was. I didn’t even leave an “away” message on my e-mail. Had I done so, it would have read something like, “If this message is urgent, call… Oh, heck, I don’t know… 911 or something.”

Funeral for a Friend

It began with a memorial service on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for my friend of more than 40 years, Winston Groom. He’s the fellow who wrote the novel Forrest Gump, and a lot of other wonderful stuff – eight novels and 15 works of nonfiction.

Winston, as a young lieutenant, was a veteran of some of the worst fighting in Indochina. In 1978, he wrote what was then – and still is – the best novel about the Vietnam War, Better Times Than These.

He was also a brilliant historian. History buffs, get off your buffs and order some Groom histories. Maybe start with Kearny’s March, which is about the opening of the American West in the 1840s, or Vicksburg, 1863, on the battle you think you know about until you read Winston’s account...MORE