Leaning back from the table, ever-present Rothman smoldering away, Christopher Hitchens turned from globalpolitik to what was really on his mind: why the nickname “Spanker” goes so well with most British surnames, and what the sexiest word in the English language might be. “The most exciting word in the language?” wondered the apostate ideologue rhetorically, tugging at his drink. “It’s preemptive. Yes, preemptive. In fact, I’m getting excited by it right now.”
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Hitchens was holding court in the back of Edgewater’s Ethiopian Diamond restaurant, where he’d repaired with an entourage last Thursday after a speaking event at nearby Left of Center Books. Local journalist Danny Postel–a friend since 1996, when they chatted on Postel’s radio show Free Associations about Hitch’s Mother Teresa smackdown–had organized the evening, promising a lively conversation about the author’s notorious split with the Nation, and the left in general, after 9/11. Only when most of the standing-room-only crowd had drifted home did Hitchens, a generous shaker of strange hands, make the move to the restaurant, the rest of us trailing along.
Why did globalization seem to target those third world countries least equipped to deal with socioeconomic upheaval? Isn’t such havoc–not to mention the effects of less subtle occupations–at least partially responsible for all manner of radicalizations and insurgencies around the world? How does a vulnerable nation protect itself from the IMF? Now that you and Wolfowitz are on the same page, what’s your take on Syria? Iran? Most of the questions alluded in one way or another to Hitchens’s seeming transformation from maverick contrarian liberal to Chomsky-bashing neocon apologist, and for the most part he was genial in response–though his chair did seem to edge inexorably away from his inquisitor as the evening progressed. Finally landing a sycophantic jab, however, the querant was tartly warned by Hitchens against “pulling my whiskers” again.
“Darling,” said Hitchens with a throaty sigh. “I thought you’d never ask.”
