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    Book Review

    Molly Ivins: A rebel with a cause

    Elizabeth Bennett
    Nov 28, 2009 | 7:52 am
    • "Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life" by Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith details thefamous Texas writer's fascinating life.
    • Seated on the right, Ivins joined her mother, Margaret, and sister Sara, brotherAndy, and father Jim at Houston functions.
    • Ivins maintained a lifelong passion for sailing, inviting friends aboard herfather’s boats.
    • Molly Ivins and Kaye Northcott at The Texas Observer
    • Ivins during chemotherapy treatements for cancer
      Thomas McConnell

    When she was a child growing up in the River Oaks, Molly Ivins dreamed of being famous. If she didn’t make it by age 25, she wrote on a note tucked in her wallet, she would commit suicide.

    That early promise is a key to the intensity and drive of one of the most provocative and influential figures in modern journalism. Before Ivins died of cancer at age 62, her column was appearing in more than 300 newspapers, three of her books had become national bestsellers and she was being offered $15,000 for speaking appearances.

    An icon of liberalism in Texas, Ivins was a wise-cracking social commentator who inspired readers to both laughter and action, write authors Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith in Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life (Public Affairs, $26.95).

    Their entertaining, readable biography explores the life and times of a complicated woman who had a gift for humorously exposing the weaknesses of other people but was unable — or unwilling — to tackle her own demons.

    Even if you agreed with her politics, Ivins wasn’t always easy to admire. She could be mean and unfair in print, was sometimes careless about using other writers’ material in her columns and was once famously accused of plagiarism by Southern humorist Florence King. Ivins apologized, the story was picked up all over the country, and she admitted to the American Journalism Review that she was depressed about it.

    But love her or hate her, Ivins’ life makes fascinating reading. From interviews with over 100 of Ivins’ friends, colleagues, and family members, the authors reveal a woman little known outside her circle of close friends. In addition to all the personal stories, the book is full of vivid descriptions of postwar Houston, Austin and Dallas.

    Born in 1944, Ivins was the daughter of a powerful, conservative Tenneco lawyer she battled with all her life. (He would end up leaving Ivin’s mother for a younger woman and blow his brains out in his 80s.) Her biography portrays a spirited girl who had an elevated opinion of herself (once writing her parents from camp that she was “superior to everybody”), who started smoking and drinking in high school, and who began spinning tales about Texas that had out-of-state school friends roaring with laughter.

    As a young woman, she was also “a knockout,” one of her oldest female friends told the authors. At 6-feet-tall, Ivins had red hair, “a figure to die for, and was just gorgeous.” And although she never married, she would have a number of short affairs. The gossip about her in later years was that she had slept with Congressman Charlie Wilson, among other well-known political figures, and that she and Ann Richards, the late Texas governor and good friend, were lovers.

    Ivins laughed at the suggestion she was gay. She came up with a stock response, describing herself as “a left-wing, aging Bohemian journalist who never made a shrewd career move, never dressed for success, never got married, and isn’t even a lesbian, which at least would be interesting.”

    The love of her life was a brilliant, bold Yale student named Hank Holland who died in a motorcycle accident while still in college. The two were inseparable when she was at Smith College, and friends surmise she never married because she never found anyone else who could measure up.

    Always interested in writing, Ivins interned for three summers at The Houston Chronicle, which the authors call “the early foundation for her boldly skeptical voice.” After graduating with a history degree from Smith College, she got a master’s in journalism from Columbia University before beginning a career in journalism. The best thing that ever happened to her, she would tell people for years, was The Texas Observer, a progressive bi-weekly publication of Texas politics and culture in Austin.

    At the Observer, where she became drinking buddies with Austin activists, musicians and writers, Ivins was free to write what she thought and use the (often four-letter) words she wanted Her investigative, always entertaining stories attracted widespread attention, and she began freelancing for major publications and making speeches around the country.

    Seeking more national exposure, she moved to New York in 1976 to work for The New York Times. But spoiled by writing pretty much as she pleased, she refused to follow what she called The Times’ “corporate style” and left to write a column for the newly-designed Dallas Times Herald. She hated Dallas, calling it “hopelessly boorish,” and the papers’ subscribers and advertisers hated her. The Times Herald ended up moved her to Austin, where she continued to write her column until the paper folded, when her column was picked up by The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and later syndicated.

    Her first book, Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?, a collection of her short pieces, was published in 1991, became a bestseller, and she wrote several others, including two about George W. Bush.

    By the mid-1990s, she had reached her goal of achieving fame, but her drive to do it was taking its toll. In spite of joining AA, she was unable to give up alcohol (and cigarettes), and even after being diagnosed with advanced breast cancer she continued to drink and smoke. And despite debilitating, month-long chemotherapy and radiation treatments, the cancer spread to her liver, brain and spine. She died in January, 2007.

    Molly Ivins, a Rebel Life is a sobering account of the toll of addiction and cancer, but it’s also full of wonderful stories about a complex, brilliant woman who said what she thought, said it well, and made people — even if they disagreed with her -- laugh and think.

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    Movie review

    Nerdy teen comedies make a comeback with new movie Summer of 69

    Alex Bentley
    May 9, 2025 | 10:45 am
    Sam Morelos and Chloe Fineman in Summer of 69
    Photo courtesy of Hulu
    Sam Morelos and Chloe Fineman in Summer of 69.

    There was a trend in the late 2010s/early 2020s of bawdy comedies featuring teenage female protagonists, including Blockers, Booksmart, and Yes, God, Yes. Those types of films seemed to go by the wayside in recent years, but they’re making a comeback with the new film Summer of 69.

    Abby (Sam Morelos) is a high school senior and video game streamer who has had a crush on her classmate Max (Matt Cornett) for her entire childhood. When she learns that Max has recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend, she’s determined to make her move. With advice from a confidant that Max likes a certain sexual position, Abby sets out to learn as much as she can about it, including hiring a stripper, Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman), to help her.

    Coincidentally, Santa Monica is facing a situation where the club at which she works, Diamond Dolls, will be closed if the owner doesn’t come up with $20,000 in a week. Abby, who comes from a well-to-do family, seems to offer the perfect solution, and so the two agree to a week of lessons for that amount. Naturally, all sorts of complications arise, as well as the two women forming an unexpected bond.

    Written and directed by Jillian Bell, with help from co-writers Jules Byrne and Liz Nico, the film is both suggestive and innocent at the same time. For all of the talk about sex and innuendo, having the nerdy and inexperienced Abby at the center of the film ensures that the story remains relatively chaste throughout. That includes scenes at the strip club, where Bell makes the choice to show almost no nudity.

    Most of the humor of the film stems from Abby’s lack of experience, highlighted by her having “sexual” fantasies about Max that never actually get to the sex part. The juxtaposition between Abby and Santa Monica is also used for laughs, although Bell and her co-writers make sure to include a side story for the dancer that makes her into a three-dimensional person.

    What ultimately makes the movie succeed is the way it keeps its characters relatable. Many high school films feel the need to play into a bunch of stereotypes, but those are kept to a minimum here. Instead, Bell upends expectations by delivering honest - sometimes to a fault for the characters - dialogue that acknowledges the spectrum of sexual realities for high schoolers, a version that differs from insatiable horniness of some other teen comedies.

    Morelos, one of the stars of Netflix’s That ‘90s Show, makes for a charming lead, someone who can convincingly take her character from awkward to confident over the course of the story. Fineman, best known for her current stint as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, complements her well, showing her comedic prowess in a number of physical scenes. A supporting cast that includes Nicole Byer, Paula Pell, Alex Moffat, and Natalie Morales keeps the energy level high.

    Despite its titillating title, Summer of 69 is much more sweet than naughty. Like most coming-of-age movies, it’s about a girl who’s trying to figure out where she fits in the world. The answers she finds aren’t always the ones she was expecting, but in the best possible way.

    ---

    Summer of 69 starts streaming on Hulu on May 9.

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