You either loved Molly Ivins—well, I should probably just stop there. If you loved the written word and valued wit as much as spleen, you just did love Molly. I'll miss her.
Not surprisingly, most of her obituaries didn't do the lady justice. Of course, Ivins' brilliance and wit were remarkable, but what I really loved about her was the clarity of her written voice. It was pitch-perfect. People called her style conversational, which it was, but it was an ideal of what conversation should be: personal, amused, and unafraid of calling a spade a shovel.
Nancy Friedman, who does have perfect pitch when it comes to words, words, words, got it right in her appreciation of Ivins on Away With Words. All I can add is a Walter Bagehot quote: "Writers, like teeth, are divided into incisors and grinders."
Ivins was the sharpest incisor we had.
