Sept. 2024
One of the constants in American politics is the propensity of candidates of all parties to make ridiculous statements promoting themselves and criticizing their opponents. The current election cycle has already seen multiple examples at the national, state and local levels and will undoubtedly see more between now and November 5th.
In almost every instance the candidates don’t seem to realize how ridiculous their statements and claims are and don’t appear to intend to be ridiculous. Such was not the case with the late Richard Samet “Kinky” Friedman, who died at the age of 79 earlier this summer.
Friedman was best known for his band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, whose hits included “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore.” In 2006 he ran for governor of Texas on a platform that included legalizing drugs, ending bans on smoking and lowering the speed limit from 55 to 54.95 miles per hour. He finished fourth with 12 percent of the vote.
Friedman, unlike more conventional politicians, was knowingly and deliberately ridiculous. In 2004 he wrote, “There is a fine line between fiction and nonfiction, and I believe Jimmy Buffett and I snorted it in 1976.” In 2006 he described himself as “the bastard child of two cultures [that] seemed to have a lot in common, cowboys and Jews. They both wear their hats indoors.”
If Kinky Friedman were alive today, I think his self-deprecating humor would fit in much better at the bars at our Schlafly pubs than the untruthful ad hominem attacks favored by some more prominent politicians. What also fit in well are thoughtful discussions on a variety of topics, including local history.
Alert readers (ARs) who share this inclination might be interested in a program we’re hosting at The Schlafly Tap Room on Thursday, September 19th, featuring John K. Brown, the author of Spanning the Gilded Age, the story James Eads and his iconic bridge. I have met Professor Brown and have read an early draft of his book and can highly recommend it. The program is at 7:30 and is free and open to the public. His book will be available for purchase, as will drinks at our bar.
Built the house where Tom Schlafly grew up.
While most ARs are already familiar with Eads Bridge, most are probably not aware of another Eads project that was planned but later abandoned: the construction of a railroad across the Thuantepec Isthmus in Mexico. As envisioned by Eads, the railroad would be a means of transporting ships between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as an alternative to a canal across Panama, on which construction would not begin for another quarter century. In 1879 Eads hired a former congressman from Pittsburgh named Alexander G. Cochran to serve as his lawyer on the project.
After the abandonment of the Thuantepec project, Cochran stayed in St. Louis and engaged in the private practice of law. In 1888 he became the general solicitor and vice president of the Missouri Pacific Railroad; and later the general solicitor for the Cotton Belt and International & Great Northern Railroads. He was a 33rd degree Mason and his funeral was held at the Scottish Rite Cathedral on Lindell.
Like most ARs, I had never heard of Alexander Cochran until very recently. Nor was I aware that in 1890 he had built the house in the Central West End that my parents bought when my father returned from serving in the Pacific in World War II and where I grew up. Alexander Cochran had lived in this house until his death in 1928. His widow Mary V. Andrews Cochran lived there another 16 years until 1944.
Prior to moving to St. Louis, Cochran had served as a Democrat in the United States House of Representatives. After settling in St. Louis he endorsed Republican President Theodore Roosevelt in the Kansas Convention and in June of 1903 he received a personal letter from Roosevelt thanking him for this endorsement.
Several years later another Republican president, William Howard Taft, suggested Cochran to fill a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. One hundred and twenty years later, in the current climate of ridiculous mutual vituperation, bipartisan cooperation like this is in short supply.
Tom Schlafly
Chairman
Schlafly | The Saint Louis Brewery
