Wm F Buckley on selling the boat and his life

[sailhog]

William F. Buckley was found dead by his cook today. Even if you disagreed with his politics, you have to admit he had a great sense of humor. Alas, he was also a sailor... A salute to Cap'n Buckley!

[sailingdog]

Did the cook poison him... is foul play suspected... I bet it was Al Qaeda.

[sailhog]

I thought it was an interesting detail for the news agencies to include in an obit.

[RAGNAR]

zzz

[camaraderie]

Awww...a great mind gone. I met him once in the Rome airport and he was very gracious. Even if you don't subscribe to his politics his sailing books Atlantic High, Racing Through Paradise, and Airborne are as entertaining and interesting as the man himself. RIP Mr. Buckley... a good man.

[sailingdog]

True, very true, cam... his writing was excellent... even if you disagreed with his political views.

[teshannon]

I read Atlantic High and really enjoyed it also. Good good man, sorry he's gone.

[SailorMitch]

Agreed on his books, both the sailing ones and his Blackford Oaks mysteries. Well, his sailing books could be entertaining when WFB wasn't too busy writing about how wonderful he is. Remember the thing about the Swedish crackers in one book? How he had to console himself when he had to sell his schooner (Cyrano was it?) by admitting that he "still had a perfectly serviceable yawl." How in one book he asked all the crew to keep journals of the voyage to hand over to him for his book, and he found out that everyone simply referred to him in the journals as Himself? Ah yes, one of a kind.

I also enjoyed watching those periodic debates he hosted on TV -- was that also part of Firing Line? Always good for a laugh whether he intended it that way or not.

And now he has died. I'm sure that alone surprised him no end. But perhaps the world ought to wait 3 days before declaring that final?

Seriously, he will be missed. I disagreed with him often, but he was always entertaining.

[JohnRPollard]

My all-time favorite WFB moment was when he was co-anchoring a presidential debate quite a few years back (must have been '88, as GHWB was among the candidates). WFB's left-leaning co-anchor was trying to make a point to the effect that Republicans are the rich man's party, which he (the co-anchor) followed up by asking the candidates to stipulate their net worth.

Before anybody could respond to his co-anchor, Buckley interjected and said something to the effect of "First let's have a show of hands for those of you whose net worth exceeds that of FDR, JFK, or LBJ. Nobody? Okay, why don't we move on then."

Fair winds, and RIP WFB.

[SailorMitch]

In his sailing books, he always portrayed himself as not wealthy at all -- just another guy trying to make it in this world, more or less. It was a very hard sell.

I remember one other tidbit from one of his sailing books. His boatyard had called him about some problem with one of his boats. He said one sure way to get through to any important person was to say you were calling from the boatyard.