Episode 52, Introduction: "The Dinner Party Email" (And check out our kickstarter: "John Wilcock")

SPOKEN WORD WITH ELECTRONICS #52: A Tribute to John Wilcock! (Kickstarter Special) "Puff It, Swines!" A memory of smoking Hunter S. Thompson's favorite weed. Hi, everyone, welcome back to the show. This week, we give tribute to John Wilcock, who was the subject of the properly titled John Wilcock comic here on Boing Boing for close to a decade. A collection of the book is on Kickstarter this month – get a copy! – and if you're clicking this due to the headline, you might be curious about what pot Hunter S Thompson seemed to enjoy more than any other bag. The answer: John Wilcock's pot! Check us out this week on kickstarter at: http://www.ep.tc/kick John was one of the earliest proponents of marijuana being legalized, and his credentials speak well to his taste in quality pot, too. He worked with Tom Forcade to publish National Weed in the 1970s, which became the better known High Times. John visited my home for a week in 2010 and he arrived with the world's most perfect slender brown-paper rolled joints. We worked on the Wilcock comic for a week, and every time we smoked, it was intensely perfect. I would not call it brain-bashing pot, more specifically a very cognitive weed, with a perfect flavor (kind of a mint or cinnamon, common to very fresh good crop). I'd known of John first through reading Hunter S Thompson's correspondence collections, there are a few letters to John in there, and apparently the pot John smoked had been consistently the same quality/strain of bud for decades. I suppose once you find your perfect blend, why fuss around for others? When I asked about Hunter, John would chuckle, "Oh, he was always after me for as much of my pot as he could get." This is saying something, as Hunter clearly had access to tons of pot, everywhere, so why the focus on John's? John would extend the joint looking at it affectionately. Asking him if it was the same stuff, he nodded. It was extremely lucid weed, with a little pep, yet lightly calming. I was drinking at the time and it paired perfectly with bourbon and beer. Cigarettes, too. I've had a lot of pot and this stuff felt genuinely different. Lower THC content, so you could just devour puffs of it, and more focusing, too, at the same time. It was the kind of pot you want to write to, or work with, and we got the entire Wilcock book timeline established in less than a week. The quality of the actual rolled paper joint, too, felt like time travel in a way. Authentic "old guard" pot. Smoking John's pot, it made sense why people like HST would seek it out over other strains of weed. When Hunter visited John's home demanding more of it, John happily obliged. As HST got up to leave, some other friends showed up. A funny recollection from Wilcock was the new visitors looked down at the half-smoked joint in the ashtray. Hunter, who made as good an exit as he did an entrance, bellowed "Puff it, swines!" – and out the door he went. May you all have a good 4/20 and puff it, swines, to one and all! Enjoy this week's show, a tribute to John Wilcock, our friend, and underground icon. Thanks and have a good week, Ethan