Michael "Diary of a Nobody" Totten gets drunk with Christopher Hitchens. A truly excruciating story. Via Kieran Healy. Some highlights:
- Sir Michael rides forth: But Hitchens had a defender, too. He had me;
- He shares some down-to-earth wisdom: Believe me, you don't know what a tense political fight feels like until the person yelling at you is from a country you recently bombed and currently occupy;
- You really had to be there: I put my face in my hands. None of this was what I wanted to hear, and it dragged on longer than I'm making it seem in the re-telling;
- Eureka! Maybe they really didn't (and don't) completely understand how we differ from the colonialists and imperialists of the past;
- So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy: I respected them more, too, because they stood up to me and Christopher Hitchens. They are not servile people. They will never, ever, be anyone's puppets;
- Grooovy! We're instantly on the same page on multiple levels all at once;
- He's, like, totally tuned into where it's at: You can't afford not to read blogs,'' I said. ``Because of who you are and what you do for a living, you'll be hopelessly behind if you don't.
...
``Like I said, Christopher,'' I told him. ``You can't afford to be unplugged from the blogosphere." - A moment of intimacy... ``Angel,'' he said. ``Can I call you angel?''