Although he is possessed of a free-range mind, I think it is grossly unfair to charge, as some of his former friends on the socialist left have done, that he is an intellectual opportunist or a dilettante or a mere provocateur.
If few surprises are embedded in this trim selection of letters, edited by Abbey's pal David Petersen, it's because Abbey, on the page, was always Abbey: free ranging, cymbal crashing, an anarchist in mind as well as politics, encased throughout his life in an ever-shaken snow globe of contradictions, provocations, bathroom-wall jokes and fortissimo declarations.
His washroom on Capitol Hill used to display two magazine covers: a 1979 issue of The Nation entitled "The Conscience of a Neoconservative" and a 1981 issue of the New Republic entitled "Pat Moynihan: Neo-Liberal".What is America going to lose with the loss of Mr Moynihan's free-ranging mind?
Each of us is likely to solve problems at odd times; when our brains are supposedly relaxing, we're apt to jump up and scribble down new ideas magically generated when different parts of our minds go free range creative.
The free range of our imagination is the only departure lounge in flights of the mind for which, mercifully, there's no GPS.
"Free range," said Angela.
Then you have free range, then organic.
You have free range of it.
The fried chicken is "free range".
We had free range chickens, vegetables.
"Two patties of free range desert rattler".
