A Magnum in the Rough

By On 12/01/2011 · 45 Comments · In Remembrance

Sean Holton 1959-2011


I have so enjoyed the many Trail Mix thoughts and memories about our friend, Sean Holton, and wanted to share this letter from a mutual friend, Claudine Hellmuth (Click Here to see her delightful blog), daughter of Ann Hellmuth, a wonderful journalist who was once our boss. I happened to be with him when he received this letter, and it was one of the last times he was well enough to read aloud. He was very touched by it, giving him comfort through the pain and fear of his last days.

“Dear Sean

I remember first meeting you when I was at mom’s office in Kansas City. Magnum PI was one of my favorite shows and you looked exactly like Tom Selleck with your mustache! My 8 year old self was completely star struck at your likeness to Magnum — I expected you to start running down a beach with two dobermans at any moment, music soaring in the background.

I remember lots of Kansas City Star parties and Burning Down the House playing on the stereo, everyone was dancing in the living room. I can not hear that song and not think of you.

Remember “Gossip Queen Abdicates”? What I would call the most witty, hilarious and touching story you wrote for my mom describing our Buick as pink (it was sand colored, ahem). When that car became mine, every time I drove it thought of you calling it a pink Buick and it would always make me giggle.

Claudine Hellmuth

When I moved to DC, you helped me find an apartment and took me door to door until we found a place. Frantic phone calls were made to landlords, you even ran to help me get copies of the lease, all of this while the Oklahoma City Bombing was a breaking story, and you needed to be at the office. Thank you.

I looked so much forward to our “Melrose Monday’s” at Craig and David’s. I always cherished spending time with you guys and it was my highlight of every week. Remember how Craig would leave the vacuum out because he had spent so much on it he thought it should have a prominent place in the living room? I remember watching Babe the Pig while you declared it BBQ night. Going to see Sense and Sensibility at the Uptown theater in Cleveland Park. I can’t pass by The Dupont Italian Kitchen without thinking of you.

Thank you for giving a reading at our wedding. Thank you for your writing, your humor, your wit, your awesomeness. You are the brother and uncle I never had, all wrapped into one.

I love you Sean.”

– Claudine Hellmuth

 
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45 Responses to A Magnum in the Rough

  1. xrepublican says:
    12/01/2011 at 4:20 PM

    Woo Hoo.

  2. solarcrete says:
    12/01/2011 at 4:47 PM

    Craig,

    Very nice.!! Maybe this thread could be an invitation to those that knew Sean personally, and would want to share more of those wonderful stories about him?

  3. xrepublican says:
    12/01/2011 at 5:05 PM

    That was a lovely letter.

    Now, back to that messed up, flip-flopping, wierdo lawrence kudlow:

    I. kudlow as an economic spiritualist
    kudlow is a man who burned out his once formidable brain with alcohol and cocaine. He once worked for the FED as a bond trader in the ‘open market’, and established his credentials in that work. However, now he is a sort of market animist, masquerading as a Catholic. He believes that there are ‘animal spirits’ that control the financial and other markets. He has frequently attributed market events to these spirits, and has recommended that we change our economic policy to make use of them.

    II. kudlow on America banking with foreigners
    a.kudlow opposes the US borrowing money from commieChina and loaning money to free market Europe.

    b. He says borrowing will force up interest rates, which is bad. Then he says lending will depress interest rates, which is bad.

    III. kudlow, paul, and Milton Friedman
    a. Essentially, kudlow opposes Milton Friedman’s monetarist methods for spurring and retarding economies. In this he is joined by ron paul. kudlow is anti-Friedman because he believes that the aggregate economic actions of the populace feed the ‘animal spirits’ that work toward balance. paul opposes Friedmanism because it presupposes a central bank that has “power over individuals”. kudlow knows that individuals, and even nations, are helpless before the might of his spirits, so freedom is a fantasy. Therefore paul is merely a doofer of the sentimental romantic sort. On the other economic hand, as a doctor, paul knows that kudlow has DTs.

    b. Apparently, Friedman has joined the list of people that republicans call socialists.

  4. xrepublican says:
    12/01/2011 at 5:10 PM

    Taegan Goddard says herman cain wants his accusers’ phone records. All herman has to do is ask murdoch for them.

  5. RebelliousRenee says:
    12/01/2011 at 5:15 PM

    hmmmm… Sean does look a bit like Tom Selleck.

    Solar… I left a post on the bottom of the last thread for you.

    xrep… the only thing I know about Kudlow is that he was paired with that clown, Jim Kramer, on CNBC… enough said.

  6. craigcrawford says:
    12/01/2011 at 5:16 PM

    Btw i did not mean to interrupt the fierce debate re: ron paul etc in last thread. Carry on. I’m sure Sean would have something sardonic and unique to say about it but not sure what.

  7. RebelliousRenee says:
    12/01/2011 at 5:31 PM

    Craig…
    one thing we do know from Sean’s posts is that he was a Democrat and wasn’t apologetic about being a liberal… hence the moniker, Lardass Liberal.

    I can’t imagine him to be a fan of Ron Paul.

    I would LOVE to know what he thought of this Republican field for president. No doubt he would have expressed his feelings with intelligence and wit.

  8. xrepublican says:
    12/01/2011 at 6:11 PM

    Andy Kohut notes that in the 60 districts won by teapers in 2010, the teaper approval ratings have sagged, while the republican party’s approval ratings have plummetted.

    This may be related to teapers finally noticing that ‘their movement’ is slave to the interests of Wall Street swindlers, the Big Biz interests invested in commieChina, the chambers of commies who love cheap undocumented workers, and herman cain.

    Maybe.

  9. Jamie says:
    12/01/2011 at 6:13 PM

    http://craigcrawford.com/2011/11/29/so-long-sean/#comment-275987

    MQW

    That comprehension thing again. I specifically said that Paul had denied writing them and insisted that he knew nothing about him even though they appeared with his name, from his organization. You can either choose to believe him (he did not challenge them at the time), you can decide that he had no control over his own organization (but he wants to be President). As far as I’m concerned, he may not be a racist but he isn’t competent to do the job and his economic theories are doomed to failure in the aggregate if not as possible ideas for consideration here and there.

  10. craigcrawford says:
    12/01/2011 at 6:14 PM

    Rebellious, yes Sean is (still can’t get used to past tense) a Democrat born and raised in Independence MO where he he learned to revere Harry Truman and as a kid watched him take his storied walks thru town post presidency.

  11. Katherine Graham Cracker says:
    12/01/2011 at 6:18 PM

    Mittens is imploding
    I can’t believe the Florida polls have nudie at 50 % what is wrong with Florida oh right.

    Nudie is 68 --

    I would also like to know how Nudie pays for his medical insurance. Does he get a congressional pension and he is still taking it and does it include health insurance

  12. Jamie says:
    12/01/2011 at 6:39 PM

    How big a kitten are the Evangelicals going to have over Hillary going barefoot, ringing a gong and pouring water in a Buddhist temple?

    http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2011/1201/Hillary-Clinton-barefoot-in-Burma-Myanmar

    The woman is obviously in league with the anti-Christ

    Where’s that “sarcasm” symbol on the keyboard.

  13. solarcrete says:
    12/01/2011 at 7:13 PM

    Renee,

    Hey.! thats not fair.! Bringing Lardass into this…..but he just might say this also:

    Ok, what if Ron Paul and Michael Moore have a lot in common…I don’t like the first answer about Medicare…but the rest is right on….listen to it all, and see that he and M & M are on the same pirogue ……no not that M & M (chocolate)…Micheal Moore….

  14. xrepublican says:
    12/01/2011 at 7:14 PM

    Btw, I think the pic looks more like Paul Simon than Tom Selleck

  15. corey says:
    12/01/2011 at 7:26 PM

    Checking in. Yeah, Whiskeyjack, Michelle Bachman really did say she would close the US embassy in Iran. Apparently, she doesn’t remember that it already has been closed for 30 years. I enjoy the stories about Sean as much as I enjoyed the stories about Patsi. I’ve learned a lot about the 2 of them because of the kind words and stories of others.

  16. solarcrete says:
    12/01/2011 at 7:29 PM

    Im having way too much fun with Ron Paul vids…here is one showing how Hillary Clinton is a huge fan of his…”she really likes him” her comments at the end are priceless:

  17. Flatus says:
    12/01/2011 at 7:35 PM

    Why is a candidate going around mumbling Nein, Nein, Nein?

  18. solarcrete says:
    12/01/2011 at 7:40 PM

    Craig,

    Im going to take a chance of getting you mad…sorry ahead of time if so.

    If Sean didn’t see this one…he would have liked it…so here goes….”the best one line ever” given by Bob Hope:

  19. solarcrete says:
    12/01/2011 at 7:57 PM

    Patd,

    How U doing kiddo? Remember the information about us apes having 1 trillion cells on our body (only one in a 100 are human) you linked me too, not in the article (just read it all, my mind bounces around quite a bit)….but there is about 8ft of dna in each cell…….whata u think about that? is that what they mean when they say “just enough rope to…….hope that all is going well….later

  20. Tonyb says:
    12/01/2011 at 8:01 PM

    there are things that I don’t like about him…..but at least he doesn’t lie like Obama does about those things….he tells us what we want to hear…and then pisses down our legs………

    Solar,
    I completely agree with your statement here! I like that Ron Paul is a straight speaker but he’s kooky to me! I say his Libertarian streak would be great in a perfect world where folks didn’t need help from the government..Oh yes, Paul says people should help people..The sick can work it out with doctors, no need for government..What utter nonsense..

  21. Tonyb says:
    12/01/2011 at 8:02 PM

    Renee,
    Loved yours and Solar’s back and forth on the previous thread, so very informative, both of you..

  22. Tonyb says:
    12/01/2011 at 8:08 PM


    Apple’s Siri, Obama’s ‘Present,’ Mitt’s Flips
    by Taylor Marsh

    The one thing women have to hold on to this time, however, is that in 2010 the female vote split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, which hadn’t happened in a long, long time. Obama’s base is also not nearly as excited as the right is for 2012, with outside challengers to the big two parties destined to rise up over the next 6 months. So, Pres. Obama needs women to get reelected, Democratic women who believe freedom is not just for men and that laws on the books to protect a woman’s individual freedoms matter.

    So, can Pres. Obama afford to side with Catholic bishops over women on reproductive health care access yet again? We’re about to find out.

    After all, it’s wonderful that the Catholic health care industry supported Pres. Obama on the health care fight, but these anti-female freedom voters are very unlikely to vote for his reelection in 2012. That really is the only thing that matters to Barack Obama today and as we’ve found before, Mr. Obama is nothing if not opportunistic with his principles.

    It’s always about whether it benefits him, just like any other politician.

  23. Tonyb says:
    12/01/2011 at 8:15 PM

    Who is the real RINO?
    By JOE SCARBOROUGH |

    A candidate like Newt Gingrich can get away with supporting the biggest socialist scheme in American government over the past 30 years because he says nasty things about the press and calls Barack Obama a Marxist. Jon Huntsman, on the other hand, can have a stellar conservative record as Utah’s governor, be anti-abortion and adored by the NRA. But if he refuses to spit out angry screeds against Obama, he’s dismissed as a RINO, the facts be damned.

  24. whskyjack says:
    12/01/2011 at 8:43 PM

    Having fun with wikipedia

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_of_Death

    Enter your own search and see what title you get for the picture.

  25. whskyjack says:
    12/01/2011 at 8:51 PM

    wow, God looks a lot like the Angel of Death

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God

    Yeah, I know, what can I say, I’m easily amused.

    Jack

  26. Tonyb says:
    12/01/2011 at 8:55 PM

    Chrome vs. Firefox: Google Browser Passes Mozilla In Market Share For First Time

  27. Jamie says:
    12/01/2011 at 9:30 PM

    Except that Paul wants everyone to pay for their own care and M & M wants single payer universal coverage like all the other developed nations. Both agree that the current system is the worst possible combination of both systems.

  28. xrepublican says:
    12/01/2011 at 9:31 PM

    If the rippers nominate willard or jon, the ticket will probably win in Utah in 2012. That is, unless herman is the vice guy.

    If the pugs nominate the fat grinch, they might not even get Utah. He’s a mean one, Mr. grinch.

    If repugnicans nominate herman they’ll definitely lose in Utah, but they’ll have an outside chance of winning in DC.

    No wonder frank luntz is terrified.

  29. Jamie says:
    12/01/2011 at 9:35 PM

    It’s just the annual pitch from Wiki for operational funds. I’ll give them my usual $10

  30. Jamie says:
    12/01/2011 at 9:37 PM

    I like Chrome but it still has bugs and certain sites won’t work if you are in Chrome (i.e. Rotten Tomatoes “want to see”) and you have to switch over to Safari with Apple.

  31. whskyjack says:
    12/01/2011 at 9:49 PM

    Yes it is and they put the picture that way on purpose, at least according to James Fallows. Also for languages that are read from right to left the picture is on the other side. That little bit of dissonance caused by the mistaken identification makes people pay attention to the ad.

    Interesting

    Jack

  32. Tonyb says:
    12/01/2011 at 10:10 PM

    Jamie,
    I run into the same thing with Chrome and frequently!It happened just tonight on the DirectTV sight. I switched over to Mozilla and all was well…

  33. Tonyb says:
    12/01/2011 at 10:17 PM

    Exclusive: Mitt Romney’s Son Talks Up Family’s ‘Small’ $12 Million Home
    BENJY SARLIN

    Clearly aware of the vulnerabilities created by a fortune pegged as high as $250 million, Romney has been playing up his blue collar style in 2012: flying Southwest, wearing jeans and flannel, etc. A recent e-book by Politico included this anecdote:

    “The candidate himself is a notorious cheapskate. He puts duct tape around the fingers of torn ski gloves and likes to fly JetBlue. When it’s necessary to reroute Romney, he sometimes balks; he doesn’t like the fees imposed by airlines for changed reservations.”

    Oh yes and Romney’s an unemployed person as well, lol… Rolls Eyes

  34. Tonyb says:
    12/01/2011 at 10:21 PM

    There Are No Deficit Hawks – Part 30,354
    By: Jon Walker

    So the second ranking Republican in the House is working on a deal where the deficit increasing payroll tax holiday, instead of being fully paid for like the Democrats first suggested, is going to be traded in exchange for even more useless military deficit spending. The GOP is actually suggesting they undo the deficit reduction agreement they were able to win only a few months ago to make it easier to expand the deficit.

    This is very much like when Congress couldn’t decide to extend some of the deficit-exploding Bush tax cuts or all of the deficit-exploding Bush tax cuts, so their solution was to extend them all plus a whole grab bag of even more deficit increasing provisions.

    Since I think Congress’ obsession with the deficit is idiotic at this time, I’m not really disappointed that the so called “deficit hawks” don’t ever live up to their “the deficit is the worst thing ever that will destroy America” rhetoric. All that upsets me is that that media still pretends these people care about the deficit.

  35. Tonyb says:
    12/01/2011 at 10:32 PM

    Congress endorsing military detention, a new AUMF
    BY GLENN GREENWALD

    The Levin/McCain bill also restates many of the restrictions previously imposed by Congress on the transfer or release of Guantanamo detainees. In some instances, it actually loosens some of those restrictions. But it essentially reaffirms the Congressional blockade against the closing of Guantanamo.

    This issue has long been one of the most misunderstood. Obama defenders will endlessly claim that it is not Obama’s fault that Guantanamo remains open because Congress prevented its closure. That claim is true as far as it goes, but it does not go very far at all. As indicated above, Obama himself — long before, and totally independent of, any act of Congress — did two things to entrench indefinite detention: (1) made clear that dozens of detainees would continue to be held indefinitely and without charges; and (2) unveiled his plans not to close, but simply to relocate to Illinois, the Guantanamo system of indefinite, military detention. As he himself made clear, he never tried or intended to end Guantanamo’s indefinite detention system, but merely to move it a few thousand miles North. Levin/McCain ensures that Guantanamo will remain open indefinitely, and that is Congress’s — not Obama’s — fault. But the continuation of the system of indefinite detention — which, along with torture, is what made Guantanamo so controversial in the first place: not its geographic location — is attributable to President Obama.

    President Obama’s possible veto of Levin/McCain

    Most media discussions of Levin/McCain assert that President Obama has threatened to veto it. That is not quite true: the White House’s statement on this bill uses language short of a full-on veto threat: “the President’s senior advisers [will] recommend a veto.” Moreover, former Bush DOJ official Jack Goldsmith makes a persuasive (though not dispositive) case that it is unlikely that the President would veto this bill. Most likely, it seems to me, is that the veto threat will be used to extract concessions in order to have a bill that the President will sign.

  36. DexterJohnson says:
    12/01/2011 at 11:41 PM

    “I remember watching Babe the Pig while you declared it BBQ night. ”
    Claudine, priceless.

  37. Flatus says:
    12/01/2011 at 11:55 PM

    Hey, Tony, let Mitt know that when he messes up the bumper of his Rolls, I’ll show him how to fix it himself like I do. Don’t have to buy any parts, either. Just need a hunk of iron to use as an anvil and one hell of a big hammer.

  38. xrepublican says:
    12/02/2011 at 1:37 AM

    Weird. Time travel must be possible.

    I just posted @ 1:31 am, and the post showed up as having been sent @ 9:31pm the previous day!

  39. xrepublican says:
    12/02/2011 at 1:40 AM

    Here’s what the time travelling post looks like, so just in case it appears in your era, you’ll be able to recognize it :

    “xrepublican says: 12/01/2011 at 9:31 PM

    If the rippers nominate willard or jon, the ticket will probably win in Utah in 2012. That is, unless herman is the vice guy.

    If the pugs nominate the fat grinch, they might not even get Utah. He’s a mean one, Mr. grinch.

    If repugnicans nominate herman they’ll definitely lose in Utah, but they’ll have an outside chance of winning in DC.

    No wonder frank luntz is terrified.

    Click to EditRequest Deletion

    0

    Reply

  40. xrepublican says:
    12/02/2011 at 1:41 AM

    Goodnight from the Twilight Zone

  41. xrepublican says:
    12/02/2011 at 1:45 AM

    Think of it…. A post shows up 4 hours before it is even typed. Wow.

    ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzz

  42. sturgeone says:
    12/02/2011 at 5:28 AM

    I didn’t read the articles, but I’d say that god and the angel of death have a lot in common.

  43. Jamie says:
    12/02/2011 at 8:00 AM

    NEW THREAD

  44. Tonyb says:
    12/02/2011 at 8:43 AM

    Haha, you funny! I’m sure Mitt would grab that hammer.. LOL

  45. Mimi Lenox says:
    12/02/2011 at 9:24 AM

    I think you did quite well without the sarcasm symbol, Jamie. LOL