Balthazar Buehb

From Plastic Tub

Also an accomplished artist, Buehb's Great Satan I love Yoo (Get the fuck out of Vietnam!) caused riots when first displayed at the Fourth International Accidentalist Conference in 1968.

Iranian. Born Jan. 17, 1918 in Tehran. He shows up in a sparkling juice-suit, transported largely by spirit. He is hollandaise sauce, sprinkled by ghosts, a companion star venerated by savage rags. He receives lice, a dutiful tribute, smiling, for the dead: "what physicality, this!"

Buehb is one of the more complex figures in the AA story. Buehb was the first journalist to take a more than passing interest in the activities of Stimso Adid and Stimes Addisson, the two young firebrands who had caused a minor stir in 1946 with the publication of their broadside: "Who's Stalin? I'm rarin' to go!" In the wake of the ensuing publicity surrounding the investigation of the pair and their magazine, Reticent 27, Buehb was sent to follow up on the fallout by his employers at the Workers Weekly World News. Buehb became an admirer almost immediately, and though he later sought to become part of the movement, Adid always kept him at arm's length.

Buehb was generally a more understanding figure than later Associationist detractors give him credit for. There is even some speculation that the adversarial relationship, the acrimonious letters to the editor, the vicious insults, etc. were all part of a ruse, and that Buehb was really on the inside; in this scenario his role as nemesis serves a more profound, if obscure, purpose. In any event, the man is dead. He was shot while on assignment in the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan on July 14, 1998 at the age of 70. He is remembered as much for his dry wit as his enormous, bulbous nose.

Adid himself mellowed on the man in later years and often spoke highly of him, strictly "off the record."

Desiderata

• He had a brief role in Back to the Future II, as an old cowboy. He kidded Michael J. Fox about his freckles and the pair remained in touch until Buehb's death. The two visited Kevin Bacon on the set of Footloose and smoked a "j" in Bacon's trailer
• He was President, for 27 minutes, of the floating island democracy/AA-funland "Wee-Wee".

Known Works

Anecdotes of Association, experimental memoir.

Don't Get it? Let Me Touch You, political pamphlet.

Dreams of a False Nose, situation comedy script.

Our Gang, hysterical clap-trap.