Nearly twenty years ago, I wrote a paper for my high school American government class on Larry Flynt’s candidacy for president in the 1984 election. Got an A−, which wasn’t bad, considering that the teacher was a feminist who — despite being a liberal and a great teacher — was against everything Flynt stood for, and I sprung the paper on her at the last minute. But it was pretty much par for the course for me, having written an immigration paper about extraterrestrials, among others.
So last night, at the Hustler Hollywood store in downtown San Diego, Flynt was there in person. I actually thought it was going to be a political speech of some sort, but instead he was just there signing autographs, with someone named Jenna Jameson. I was apparently the only one in line who didn’t immediately recognize her from her numerous porn videos. “You’re here to see Larry?”
I picked up his book and got him to sign it and my paper — which I somehow was able to dig up from the archives — and even made another copy for him to keep, which he seemed to appreciate. He wasn’t looking all that great, but did seem to brighten up when I showed him the paper. “I would certainly like to read this.”
One of my favorite parts of standing in the two-hour line: they were telling us the “rules” — you could take pictures OF them, but not WITH them. “That’s okay,” I told the people in line around me, “that’s what Photoshop is for. ‘See, here we are at Sea World, and there we are at the zoo…’”