Spare Change: A columnist and much more, Chip Young lived in a 'Cool, Cool World'

Sharing some oddznendz while admitting I thought Mikhail Gorbachev died a few years ago:

• R.I.P.: Chip Young.

Chip died unexpectedly last week at age 72. And it’s still sinking in.

A Hall of Fame soccer player at Brown, a veteran public relations guy (Save the Bay, the URI oceanography school) and a great guy, Chip perhaps was best known for his long stint in freelance journalism, writing for what we once called “underground” newspapers.

Since 1980, he teamed with singer/actor/rabble-rouser Rudy Cheeks (Bruce McCrae), of a onetime classic band called the Young Adults, in writing a satirical column called “Phillipe and Jorge’s Cool, Cool World.”

Chip was Phillipe and Rudy was Jorge. The writers were straight (but not narrow) men portraying gay blades living in a shangri-la called Casa Diablo.

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This was a weird concept in 1980 … as if it wouldn’t be today.

They skewered everything and everybody, assigning fitting nicknames to politicians … Capt. Blowhard (Bruce Sundlun) and Gerber Baby (Ed DiPrete).

The column began at something called the Providence Eagle (which had a Newport edition). Young and Cheeks battled with the owner, who dumped them and penned a fake and inferior version of the column.

This got tangled up in court. The columnists came away with the rights to Cool, Cool World and the Eagle died a nearly anonymous death.

Chip wrote during the court mess. “Our lawyer is working pro bono, which means for the people. Their lawyer is working Sonny Bono, which means for the idiot.”

Ouch.

The two wisenheimers moved to their true home, The NewPaper/Providence Phoenix, and stayed until the Phoenix folded several years back. (Chip also wrote a zany sports column called “On the Ball and Off the Wall.”)

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In recent years, the two wrote for Motif magazine and kept their edge.

Chip spent many a year living in Jamestown with a detour in Newport. He said the move to Newport raised Jamestown’s collective IQ while lowering the IQ in Newport.

But make no mistake, Chip was a very bright, well-read man, a passionate environmentalist … with a sharp wit with a Google-worthy stack of knowledge at the ready.

Chip was born with congenital heart problems. Childhood surgery allowed him a full life as a soccer player and golfer later in life.

He bounced back well from more heart surgery in 2016. And he was back at the YMCA a month or two later.

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Chip enjoyed life. He was curious and self-effacing. I knew him for close to 40 years, enjoyed occasional lunches at Yesterday’s, and I will miss his upbeat emails and quotes from Groucho Marx and H.L. Mencken.

Now that Cool, Cool World appears to be done, the weekly foolishness you read in this space might be the longest-running (1986-present) column here in the Biggest Little.

I wish Chip and Rudy were still Number One.

• I’m with Jamie Bova on this one.

The school regionalization vote feels rushed. And I would’ve delayed the vote until May, as Newport City Council member Bova suggested.

It sounds ridiculous, I’m aware, to suggest we stretch out a debate that dates back at least as far as the Reagan administration.

But it feels as if the proposed consolidation campaign has been a bit herky-jerky and lackluster.

Maybe it’s because years ago some Middletown officials were resistant to the point of arrogance. So … all of a sudden Middletown schools go $1.2 million in the hole and the town brass is singing, “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” to Newport Mayor Jeanne-Marie Napolitano.

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Despite Bova’s push for a delay, the vote will happen in November. I realize changing the date would cause complications and be potentially harmful to Newport.

But I still have no idea how I’ll vote.

I’ve heard a few Newport voters mention Middletown’s one-time refusal to even discuss regionalization.

And they plan to remind Middletowners at the voting booth. Loudly.

• When I see WPRI’s sports reporter J.P. Smollins on the air, it’s hard to believe he interned in The Daily News newsroom a whopping 26 years ago.

He was a Northeastern University grad student at the time.

• Stephen King called “The Plot” by Jean Hanff Korelitz “insanely readable.”

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Very true. The book is a novel within a novel … a partial whodunit and a poke in the eye to pretentious writers chasing fame at any cost.

It will keep you turning the pages late at night.

• So when does the next Elton John farewell tour start up? Probably right after Cher and Kiss start theirs.

• Napping is my superpower.

Jim Gillis is a Daily News columnist. Send him email at jimgillis13@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Spare Change: Columnist Chip Young lived in a 'Cool, Cool World'