Knocking At The Gate

My first magazine subscription when I was a kid was for Mad magazine, followed in short order by National Lampoon . It was in National Lampoon that I first read writing that both made me laugh out loud and but was also so stylish that I wanted to learn how to write myself. Those hilariously raunchy, absurd, and punchy articles and stories were written by this man. One of the only times I ever got in trouble at school was when I smuggled in a National Lampoon magazine, which I then loaned to a friend, who then busted out laughing when he read the O'Rourke article I had pointed out to him. We both got reprimanded but we both agreed it was worth it. That stuff was funny as hell.  O'Rourke then went on to appear in nearly every other funny or politically-charged or literary or hip magazine that a voracious young reader like me was able to find in my rural Florida hometown. No matter which magazine I picked up next, he seemed to be in it: The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fai...