Letter: The Time of Phil

Okay, here’s the thing I love about MP: It is simultaneously serious and playful. It feeds you a weekly dose of cod liver oil (or some equivalent that is always good for you) and then says, Hey, let’s go hunt down a gnome (or some equivalent that will always make you smile).

When I read Jack Neely’s tribute to Phil Pollard (Nov. 3, 2011), someone I have never actually spoken to, I was re-devastated (all big losses these days are personal whether they are personal or not). Then, when I read MP’s “Who Should I Vote For?” flow chart, I was laughing through my tears. And it wasn’t just because I’m a Democrat; it was because MP seemed, at that moment, a kind of a metaphor for Phil Pollard and his Band of Humans. Pollard’s monologues, like the Gettysburg Address, would have me wanting to place my hand over my heart and be a better human, then he would sing “Like Eating Chocolate Cake” and make me just so damn happy.

You hear people say, “I am fortunate to have lived in the time of…[fill in the blank—The Beatles, Steve Jobs, Andy Rooney, etc.]. I am fortunate to have lived in the time of Phil Pollard. Thanks, MP, for both Neely’s and Sara Schwabe’s tributes to this extraordinary individual.

Judy Loest

Knoxville

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