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Maurice Sendak Dreamed Of Blowing Up George W. Bush
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jun 25, 2012
Modified Jun 25, 2012
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jun 25, 2012
Modified Jun 25, 2012
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Like any good American or American cable company, Maurice Sendak detested George W. Bush. How much? Enough to (jokingly?) contemplate blowing himself up to kill Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. In an excerpt of a wide-ranging interview with The Comics Journal shortly before his death, Sendak tells Garth Groth how he'd wipe out the first and second families with one "love hug."
SENDAK: Bush was president, I thought, "Be brave. Tie a bomb to your shirt. Insist on going to the White House. And I wanna have a big hug with the vice president, definitely. And his wife, and the president, and his wife, and anybody else that can fit into the love hug."
GROTH: A group hug.
SENDAK: And then we’ll blow ourselves up, and I’d be a hero. [Groth laughs.] To hell with the kiddie books. He killed Bush. He killed the vice president. Oh my God.
GROTH: I would have been willing to forgo this interview. [Sendak laughs.]
SENDAK: You would have forgotten about it. It would have been a very brave and wonderful thing. But I didn’t do it; I didn’t do it.
The Atlantic calls Sendak's words "unpleasant," and we agree, but only because it puts him in the same company as Ted Nugent.
Tagged
children's books
george w. bush
maurice sendak
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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