RIP Tim Bentley

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/obits/stories//2009/01/21/Tim_Bentley_obituary.html

Yes, folks, smoking kills. I'd post the following lyrics to the blog, but to this point I've managed to avoid cussing and blatant sexual terminology, and I don't want to anger any innocents. Nonetheless, sufficiently warned, you should read the lyrics to Allen Ginsberg's "Put Down Your Cigarette Rag."

http://www.angelfire.com/bc/villanelle/cigaretterag.html

Tim was a friend/fellow freelancer/client. We worked together weekly for some years while he was putting out a political newsletter, and single-handedly he later was probably responsible for more clients (albeit small ones) than all but one of my other contacts.

Tim was a freelancer and could only be a freelancer. As soon as he signed on anywhere as a regular employee (known occasionally in these parts as a "sap with a day job"), it was only a matter of moments before he was looking for the exit door. But Tim would take my name along with him everywhere he went and get his new employer to use me. Inevitably, within a few months, Tim would be gone and my name would stick around, for a while anyway. I think he was also ultimately responsible for my work with the syndicated columnists I work for, through a referral or two.

A very funny man, Tim had plenty of good stories, and knew where the skeletons were in more than one Georgia politicians' closet. At South., a great Atlanta magazine that lasted only a year, he printed a picture from his personal files of Secretary of State Max Cleland and some staffers, which included a woman who the next month would be identified as the other woman in the Mike Bowers affair that (so far) has ended Bowers's political career in Georgia. Bowers was attorney general and was thought to have a good shot at being governor, but in those days (the mid-1990s), the family values agenda being what it was, a known adulterer (involved in a 15-year affair, not some one-night-stand) was not likely to be elected. Tim knew the story was getting ready to break, no one knew who the woman was, but Tim found a way to publish a picture of her beforehand without ever identifying her or directly making the connection. The snickering as this issue was going to press was infectious. Working for South. (the period is intentional) was like my gig for Georgia Trend. Once a month, I'd get the call from the editor that it was time to proofread, and I'd go to some industrial park in Stone Mountain and read the issue, except unlike Georgia Trend it was usually an after-hours deal. Well-written, timely articles . . . politics and business and art . . . and in my mind, the best Georgia magazine in the 20 years I lived there. Somewhere in my basement, I hope I still have the entire run of 12 issues.

Tim also worked for Zell Miller for a while. Now that Tim has passed away, I guess I can tell this story, or maybe I should be careful because, well, Zell is still alive. Tim said that if you ever wanted to make Zell real uncomfortable, ask him how he lost part of one of his fingers. For all of Zell's military Marines hoo-hah bluster, Tim intimated to me one time that Zell may allegedly perhaps have cut off part of one of his own digits to avoid a certain level of future military service. Emphasis, my dear attorneys, on "may allegedly perhaps."

Anyway, Tim was a very good guy, had been in bad health for a long time, and hopefully now is resting easy. Last time I saw him was maybe about 4-5 years ago in a Waffle House in Marietta. Seems appropriate. Two Georgia institutions.