EITM: R.I.P. Ken Hoffman 7/15/24

Now go find out what Marley said.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I met Ken when I lived inHouston, and Ken was a writer columnist
at the time for the Houston Postand then the Chronicle. It was a
great writer like Tyler. Used tofollow his stuff all the time. I
moved over to Culture Map and hecertainly had a very low following, very
much the chronic days. And rememberthe other thing with Ken. Remember he

(00:20):
used to go up to Coney Islandand for Fourth of July and was like
a judge in the Coney Island hotdog eating contest. And remember he was
there for the year of the scandalon the number of hot dogs eating.
But anyway, I've known Ken forever, right, And I'm not going to
say Ken and I were extremely close, not not at all, but we

(00:42):
were friendly certainly, and much Wewere much closer when I was in Houston.
He was much closer with Lander,right, So when we were in
Philly together because of Lander, Istill remained close with Ken. And the
same thing when I was in NewYork with Lander, we were close with
Ken. But then like we hadKen on after the hot dog eating thing,

(01:03):
and Ken had just written an articlea couple of days ago because of
Hurricane Beryl going through Houston, hewas without power, and he was talking
about and I guess one of thepower companies there has taken a tremendous amount
of heat, no pun intended forthe way that their service is out,

(01:23):
and like Ken was talking about howyou know, he's got no air conditioning
or power at all, but likethe how the street behind him they're all
inside watching Astros games and freezing todeath. And so it was just kind
of a snarky commentary, but alittle bit pointed about like what what's going
on? There's no rhyme or reasonas to what's going on here. Well,

(01:46):
anyway, yesterday I woke up tohorrible news. Ken Hoffman died.
Oh you're kidding, No, notat all horrible news. Sadly, I
don't know how. I don't know. I don't I don't have any of
the details. They just text hereand let you know. I saw,
I got a couple of messages,but it was all the same thing where

(02:07):
it was like, oh my god, this is devastating news. Ken Hoffman
has died. And so I waslike, uh oh, So I called
Lander and I got on the phonewith Lander and I was like, hey,
you have you Like, what doyou know? And he's like,
no, I'm just getting these reportsand people are sending me notes that And
again Ken and John were much closerthan Ken and I were. But he

(02:32):
was like, yeah, I'm gettingall these notices and text messages and posts
from people, and the only thingwe know is that it's true. I
mean, we know that it's confirmed, Like people that have known Ken for
twenty five thirty years in Houston,we're talking about how horrible it is,
and his wife Aaron, his sonAndrew. But I don't have any of

(02:52):
the details at all, and Idid not look this morning to see if
anything new had come up. I'massuming I'll hear from Lander at some point,
but like he would come visit usin like I said, in Philly,
in New York, And like inPhilly, he pissed off the general
manager there once because he turned inan expense report for a pair of nail
clippers, just to be a dick. But Ken was great, Like Ken

(03:21):
was awesome. He sent out thatnews article he had written on Saturday again
at like one twenty in the afternoon. Wait, like this past Saturday,
two days ago? Yes, nokid, Yes, And as we mentioned,
he was currently writing for Culture map, and they did post late last
night on their Instagram. We aredeeply saddened to share the Ken Hoffman,

(03:43):
beloved columnist and cherished Houstonian, passedaway on July fourteenth. Ken's wit,
humor, and heartfelt stories touched usall, from his insightful columns to his
endearing community presence. He was atrue storyteller who could turn every day into
something extraordinary. That's true. That'strue. Kim was awesome, great writer,
great great writer, And the commentsare just wonderful. Just people said

(04:06):
he's he was an institution. No, he really was. He really genuinely
was. So I just I passedit along. I don't. I'm not
trying to bum anybody out, butjust Ken has come up so many times
on the on the show, notfor the certainly under no stories that I

(04:26):
would stand and tell at his funeral. However, that being said, he
was an awesome dude. He wasso much fun to be around. He
was very very smart, great writer, great person,