Drinking with Christopher Hitchens



(image via inductivist)

In The Corsair's life he has engaged in ... a few adult beverages. O.K.: More than a few. But never, Never, have we ever got as blind drunk as the time we went drinking with Christopher Hitchens, then our "mentor" at The Nation intern program. Good times. We were reminded of the experience this morning. Those intrepid Page Sixxies today write:

"CHRISTOPHER 'Hellbound' Hitchens admits drinking 'enough every day to kill or stun the average mule,' but insists the rampant boozing hasn't affected his career. 'Many great writers did some of their finest work when blotto, smashed, polluted, [bleep]faced, squiffy, whiffled and three sheets to the wind,' the 'God Is Not Great' author tells the Times of London. 'I have never been late for an appointment, never had to cancel a speaking arrangement. I do radio and TV, and I don't slur. I've never missed a deadline . . . So it can't be the case I'm a fall-about drunk.'"

First off: A mule is too small. It's liver would be decimated. A yak would be more appropriate and to scale. From my own experiences:

"I don't really remember what happened afterwards, except for the fact that we three downed two bottles of a very good wine and did colossal damage to some Johnny Walker Black. All in the space of an hour or so. Not good. I think I had the chicken. Or fish. Or some such meat product of similar texture. Christopher had to shoot a BBC documentary on capital punishment afterwards. I remember this really fucking sexy woman with an was sent by the BBC to fetch him. Really just mind blowingly sexy. Her name was ... Sophie or something (I still remember the name, so you know she was hott).

"Had I possessed the power of speech I would have let her know what I thought of her. As it was, I had lost the acquisition of upright posture gained by the labors of our common ancestors. Hitchens said goodbye politely, left with the sex goddess, and I, unfortunately, was left to my own devices as to getting to home."

(Drinking with Christopher Hitchens)