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October 30, 2014

2014 List: Wild Men. Wild Women.

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Wild Men. Wild Women. The Rankings 1 through 100 as this blog sees them in 2014. Wild Men and Wild Women are people who listen only to the little voice in their head. They get things done. They build things. They don't care what you think. Uncertainty and turbulence--in the economy, stock markets, governments, the weather, bad odds, you name it--only get their juices flowing. True, they often have dark and self-destructive sides, but we seem to like giving them a pass. A few lawyers on this list--but not enough. Lawyers. Are we just risk-averse uber-weenies? Sideline players? Bag carriers? Are we not Men, and Women?

1. Ben Franklin
2. Ted Turner
3. Dr. Johnson
4. Dr. Thompson
5. Theodore Roosevelt
6. Carl Bernstein
7. Michelangelo
8. Ayn Rand
9. Ana Marie Cox
10. Japan
11. Boudica
12. Winston Churchill
12. Benjamin Disraeli
14. Arianna Huffington
15. Bucky Fuller
16. Nino Scalia
17. Bill Buckley
18. Bill Clinton
19. Steve Jobs
20. Christopher Columbus
21. Nick Nolte
22. Jerry Lee Lewis

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Plato (#27) was way Wild. Read the Timaeus.

23. The Welsh
24. Jann Wenner
25. Sean Penn
26. Ken Wilbur
27. Plato
28. Catherine the Great
29. Val Kilmer (way wilder than Jim Morrison)
30. Harry Dean Stanton
31. Scott Greenfield
32. Julius Caesar
33. Pete Seeger
34. John Lennon
35. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
36. Peter Sheridan
37. Christopher Hitchens
38. Jerry Brown
39. Warren Beatty
40. Jack Nicholson
41. John the Baptist
42. Rahm Emanuel
43. Robert Mitchum
44. Joan of Arc and Charles Barkley (tie)
45. Dylan Thomas
46. Quentin Crisp
46. "E"
47. Boswell (he was Wild, too)
48. Ben Jonson
49. Mae West
50. Daniel Pinchbeck

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Zelda Fitzgerald (#90) was Wild. So was her childhood friend Tallulah Bankhead (#91).

51. Daniel O'Connell
53. David Boies
54. Elizabeth Wurtzel
55. St. John of Patmos
56. John Henry "Doc" Holliday
57. Genghis Khan
58. Alexander
59. Charles Bukowski
60. Gordon Liddy
61. Malcolm Lowry
63. Keith Moon
64. Charlie Munger
65. Babe Ruth
66. Chrissie Hynde
67. Colin Farell
68. Warren Zevon
69. Kim Jong-un (unknowable but one far-out little dude)
70. Billy Martin
71. Joe Namath
72. Guy de Maupassant
73. Grace Slick
74. Edna St. Vincent Millay
75. Mickey Mantle
76. François Villon
77. Friedrich Nietzsche
78. Rep. Bob Eckhardt (Texas-D) (gifted, eloquent, exotic)
79. Rachel Maddow
80. Ray Davies
81. Marc Randazza
82. Jennifer Randaza
83. Alec Baldwin
84. John Huston
85. Australia
86. Gertrude Stein
87. Oscar Levant
88. Ava Gardner
89. Frank Sinatra
90. Zelda Fitzgerald
91. Tallulah Bankhead
92. Ted Kennedy
93. Frances Farmer
94. Richard Burton
95. Elizabeth Taylor
96. Marion Barry
97. Racehorse Haynes
98. Ben Bradlee
99. Davey Crockett
100. William Randolph Hearst

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Meet Ted (#2). He never cared what you thought.

Posted by JD Hull at October 30, 2014 11:50 PM

Comments

Quotes from the Chickadee
Mae West
American actress, 1890-1983


Virtue has its own reward, but has no sale at the box office.
Goodness, what lovely diamonds.
Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.
No gold-digging for me... I take diamonds! We may be off the gold standard someday.
It takes two to get one in trouble.
I'm no angel, but I've spread my wings a bit.
A man in the house is worth two in the street.
It is better to be looked over than overlooked.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about you lately.
You must be awful tired.
I'm a woman of very few words, but lots of action.
Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.
I can always tell a lady when I see one.
Yeah? What do you tell 'em?
Give a man a free hand and he'll try to put it all over you.
Too many girls follow the line of least resistance--but a good line is hard to resist.
Some men are all right in their place--if they only knew the right places!
It ain't no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't
break any.
I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from.
I see you're a man with ideals. I better be going while you've still got them.
Any time you got nothing to do--and lots of time to do it--come on up.
Men are all alike--except the one you've met who's different.
All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.
The score never interested me, only the game.
Men are my hobby, if I ever got married I'd have to give it up.
It's not the men in my life -- it's the life in my men.
Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?
I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.
Women with "pasts" interest men because men hope that history will repeat itself.
Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring.
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.
There are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin.
The best way to learn to be a lady is to see how other ladies do it.
Let men see what's coming to them, and women will get what's coming to them.
The curve is more powerful than the sword.
I didn't discover curves, I only uncovered them.
When I'm good I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.
I like a man who's good, but not too good -- for the good die young, and I hate a dead one.
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
Some women pick men to marry -- and others pick them to pieces.
When a girl goes bad--men go right after her.
Good women are no fun -- The only good woman I can recall in history was Betsy Ross. And all she ever made was a flag.
A woman in love can't be reasonable--or she probably wouldn't be in love.
You can do what you want, but saving love doesn't bring any interest.
Love isn't an emotion or an instinct--it's an art.
Love is the only industry which can't operate on a five-day week.
Women want certain things in marriage--the right to a title and a front seat in the lap of luxury.
Men are easy to get but hard to keep.
It's easy to get married, but hard to stay that way.
Kiss and make up--but too much makeup has ruined many a kiss.
A girl in the convertible is worth five in the phone book.
Life's just a merry-go-round. Come on up. You might get a brass ring.
You may admire a girl's curves on the first introduction, but the second meeting shows up new angles.
I take it out in the open and laugh at it.
The best way to hold a man is in your arms.
Brains are an asset to the woman in love who's smart enough to hide 'em.
Look your best--who said love is blind?
An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.
Girls, give all your gentlemen friends an even break, even if you have to break them in the attempt.
Cultivate your curves--they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.
Love thy neighbor--and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it
will be that much easier.
If you put your foot in it, be sure it's your best foot.
It's all right for a perfect stranger to kiss your hand as long as he's perfect.
The best way to behave is to misbehave.
He who hesitates is last.
I'm single because I was born that way.
A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.
Marriage is a great institution. No family should be without it.
A man has more character in his face at forty than at twenty--he has
suffered longer.
Don't come crawlin' to a man for love--he likes to get a run for his money.
Don't cry for a man who's left you--the next one may fall for your smile.
Don't marry a man to reform him--that's what reform schools are for.
Don't keep a man guessing too long--he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.
Don't ever make the same mistake twice, unless it pays.
How do you do, Miss West?
How do you do what?
I'd give half my life for just one kiss.
Then kiss me twice.
Oh, Miss West, I've heard so much about you.
Yeah, honey, but you can't prove a thing.
You can say what you like about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins.
I’m for peace---I've yet to see a man wake up in the morning and say, ‘I've just had a good war.'
I used to be snow white, but I drifted.
When women go wrong, men go right after them.
I've been in more laps than a napkin.
I believe in censorship. After all, I made a fortune out of it.
Never ask a man where's he's been. If he's out on legitimate business, he doesn't need an alibi.
And girls, if he has been out on illegitimate business, it's your own fault.
I like two types of men--domestic and foreign.
My left leg is Thanksgiving, my right leg is Christmas. Come up and visit between the holidays.
Save a boyfriend for a rainy day--and another, in case it doesn't.
It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it.
Come up and see me sometime.

Posted by: Kathleen at October 29, 2011 10:12 AM

Nicely done, Kathleen, and thank you.,

Posted by: Hull at October 29, 2014 05:02 PM

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