Have you ever read Christopher Hitchens, and wanted to show your appreciation? Well, our secret agents of Department 13 1/2 have been hard at work, and now you can do just that... ... by buying Hitch a drink, on the blogosphere!
Truly, a fitting salute to our favourite leftist contrarian.
Here's the drill. We have a PayPal button set up below. Donating $5-10 to this campaign won't save the world or anything grandiose - just help buy Christopher Hitchens some bottles of Johnnie Walker Red (his libation of choice). These will be delivered to him, along with a note of appreciation and thanks from the Blogosphere that includes all of the contributing bloggers and readers. Delivery will be handled by the aforementioned secret agents - and yes, we really can do it.
Over to you, ladies and gentlemen....
UPDATE: As of 9 a.m. on July 16, we've raised about $650. We have also been contacted by Johnnie Walker (thanks, Tim), and by Mr. Hitchens himself. Hitch has requested that all efforts be channeled into a donation to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. We'll do exactly that.
Count me in for ten bucks and a link.
That's the spirit!
har har
Our donation is sent and a link up as well!
Johnny Walker Red? Sorry, I think too much of Hitchens to impose a blend on him. How about a Macallan's 15 instead?
Gene,
All I know is what our research tells us. De gustibus non est diputandum as they say.
What kind of cigarettes does he smoke?
Blended whisky? I knew there was something wrong with that man.
Any chance we can also purchase cigarettes for Hitch? I'm sure Hitch himself would point out that a good glass of Johnny Red needs to be complimented by a pack of smokes....Anyone else with me on this??
RE: smokes... we'd have to know his preferred brand first. Let's see what we can do re: finding out.
What about brain damage? The more booze we pour into Hitch the less coherent he will write. Remember he's well past 50 and things are downhill from that point onwards ...
Can't we get him something helpful, like Thorazine?
nice, guys, this is a great idea. the Hitch smokes Rothman's, something i've seen mentioned in a few places.
How about we all chip in and buy him the 28-day cure at the Betty Ford Clinic?
Johnny Walker RED!?
I wouldn't buy that for my worst enemy.
My God, man! That stuff smells like cat piss.
Move up to 12 year old scotch. Black Label is worth the extra cost especially if you can get chumps to buy it for you.
Hitch drinks Johnny Walker Black and smokes Rothmans. Great idea.
are you guys trying to kill him?
Hi everyone. I hate to tell you, but you have made a huge mistake. Hitchens is an emphatic JOHNNY WALKER BLACK man! I know this for a fact and don't you dare send him RED, that would be an insult.
I see Christopher got the haircut I sent him about two weeks ago.
Jonathan
When I see him again I am going to ask him what his favorite drink and cigarettes are. I am sure Joe will modify as appropriate if we can find the information soon enough.
Incidentally, I've had a link to the Christopher Hitchens Web page on my blog for years; if you want to follow his stuff, here is the place to do it, rather than just reading the trivial output of his he produces for Slate.
Wait. Is he or isn't he an alcoholic? I like his writing. I want to read more of it. I don't want to help him die.
alcoholic or not (and i really hope he's not), he pretty much can out-write and out-wit anyone on the planet. the problem is his detractors use his drinking to slam him, mostly because they can't match him on any kind of intellectual level. whatever. i think Mr. Hitchens will totally appreciate the gesture and i'm pretty sure he can take care of himself.
Lindenen,
We come to appreciate Hitch, not to bury him. The assessment I received re: Christopher Hitchens is that yes, he's the classic hard-drinking reporter archetype, but no my sources do not believe that he is an alcoholic.
Eli & Cushman's points re: JW Red vs. Black are well-taken, and we'll get confirmation from the man himself before we send anything.
As to why Hitch drinks blended whiskeys - remember that he IS a contrarian....
Hitchens probably drinks blended whiskey because it tastes better. That's why they blend whiskeys.
Drinking unblended whiskey (I'm sorry, "single malts") is certainly a good educational exercise, but enjoying it? What's next? A mania for unblended field greens with the components of a balsamic vinaigrette on the side so that one can savor each type of leaf and the oil and each herb and spice separately?
If this campaign will result in Hitchens lying on his couch all day nursing hangovers instead of writing his condescending neo-neocon tripe, I may just pitch in.
What liquor will eat what remains of his brain and liver so he'll keel over faster? I'm good for a couple 1.75 litres of Georgi Vodka if it helps.
Ok. I feel much much better about this now.
It's late here but I'll put some money into Paypal in the morning and pass it over. Incidentally, ideally, it's apparently Johnny Walker Blue
I find his drunken ramblings too reminiscent of boring cocktail party intellectualism.
I find his drunken ramblings too reminiscent of boring cocktail party intellectualism.
Three strikes I'm out,eh?
You can google or look around but there are numerous references to hitch liking Johnny Walker like this
""That Bush did not surrender to the need for a colossal bourbon on Sept. 11 stands, I think to his credit," writes Hitchens, himself a Johnny Walker enthusiast."
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/209371p-180409c.html
Scroll down
Btw he smokes Rothman’s which are a British brand of Cigs.
Lessee, over at my blog a commenter on my link to this post claims to be the Senior Brand Manager for Johnnie Walker. What say the organisers try to hit him up for sponsorship of this little effort? Email me for the contact email.
How much money has been raised?
Hitch definitely drinks Johnny Walker BLACK and smokes Rothmans. The availability of the former was a huge consideration when finding accomodations for him earlier this year when he visited my college.
You know, fun is fun, but come on, people. His drinking is not some cool hard-drinking jounalist affectation. The man is an alcoholic. He himself has admitted that he CAN'T--not won't, not "doesn't want to" but CAN'T-write without it, basically can't live without it. Read an article written about him, any interview he gives. The point is made again and again--he can't get through any of part of his day without a glass in his hand. And he's drinking doubles.
It's not a difficult riddle to solve--if you can't live your life without alcohol, then you are an alcoholic. It doesn't matter how well he writes, and how much he manages to get done in a day--he's still operating at about half-speed. Imagine how much more influential he'd be if his detractors could no longer discount his words by dismissing him as a drunk.
I would bet every single one of you know at least one alcoholic and, if that's the case, you know it's not funny or cute. It's not cool and romantic. It's a fucking waste of life and I doubt that you'd be sending that person all the alcohol he could drink. Unless you hated him, of course.
It's Hitchens' business how much he drinks, but if you admire him enough to go to all this trouble to buy him a drink, it seems you'd admire him enough not to help kill him.
Julie,
You can find many articles that point out that he does not drink to excess and is not a alcholic. Funnily enough Hitch actually makes a point that peoples opinion that he is a luch bothers him now. Last time I saw him he had not been drinking and was drinking a Coke a Coloa with Ice. I was around him for almost three and half hours. He did smoke alot though.
Also dont you think its a little bit rude of you to go around deciding who is a alcohloic and who is not? Please get back on your horse and move on.
Robi,
Look, I know I sound preachy and judgmental. I'm not proud of it. But I stand by my opinion. Opinions are often rude, although I don't intend for mine, on this subject, to be so. It's ironic, though, that you want to chase away an apparently unpopular opinion on a thread that lauds the one man you can always count on to champion unpopular opinions.
I've read that he's now bothered by the "lush" label and I've wondered why he suddenly cares. It's not a new label--he's worn it for years and it hasn't seem to faze him before. In any event, it's not as though I'm rooting for him to be an alcoholic--far from it. I hope that I'm wrong. But I don't think that I am.
Julie,
Would an alcoholic direct all money to NOT be spent on booze, and go instead to a charitable cause? Because that's exactly what Hitch just did.
I've known substance abusers, and I understand your concern. But I don't think that's the case here, and the outcome of Hitchens' request removes the issue in any event.
Hitch would be the first to protect someone's right to voice contrary opinions or run down much-beloved figures (Mother Teresa, anyone?). But I think we can put this issue to bed now, and I'm going to ask - nicely - that we not discuss this issue further in this thread.
I love Christopher, however I will not be an enabler of his rather obvious and rampant alcoholism.
Why on earth do you think the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a charitable body?
It's lots of things -- including an organisation that has been implicated in any number of serious human rights abuses in the mid-1990s: just go back through the Amnesty and Human Rights Watch files -- but "charitable cause" seems a bit too strong?
Look... I just bought Hitchens a drink, donated to his cause of choice... whatever. Not because I have any concern for what Hitchens does with the act of esteem (I leave this to the province of his seasoned decision-making capability). But here is the point (or not the point should you decide to decry the more subtle portion of intent as a voluntary act to assail the virtue of temperance, bury the herald, or support an organization that fails to fit neatly under a ‘black and white’ judgment of morality – who in the world does after all?).
Hitchens is free to direct my contribution as he sees fit. My delight is that he receives this message of esteem (aside from book sales) as a loud, clear, and direct mandate from a group that follows and appreciates his contributions to our base of knowledge: 'Please keep it up'. Thanks again Christopher... your clarity, factual immersion and common sense are refreshing and educational to say the least.
Buy Hitch a drink? Why, so he can keep turning out the drivel he's been assigning his name to over the past couple of years? Why not get him into a detox program--maybe he'll sober up enough to get back to his lefty roots instead of lying down in shit with Wolfowitz and the rest of the lunatic neocons.
The best writer we've got, would love to buy him a drink in person.
I missed the point, I thought the idea was to send him enough scotch so he would drink his sorry ass to death.
I want my money back.
Please realte to Hitchins that Bowmoore is a vastly superior scotch. (If he happens to have access to Trader Joe then their Finlaggan does it for ME).
like doesn't anybody here have a job to go to?
ha ha. got you!
just kidding!
hee hee.
PUK? Uh, I would rather give money to Chalabi, personally.
That's like giving money to the Kurdish mafia, people more than willing to cut a deal with Saddam when it served their purposes.
Someone should send the poor treasonous drunk directions to Betty Ford before he becomes even more of a joke. I wouldn't contribute a cent to the PUK. Now,if he needed a bus ticket to California, I might kick in, but a drink? He can commit suicide without my help. And his Kurdish mob buddies can extort drivers and take kickbacks without my $20.
Joe:
Since the thread did not end, as you requested, I'll risk your wrath and answer your question:
"Would an alcoholic direct all money to NOT be spent on booze, and go instead to a charitable cause?"
A homeless, penniless alcoholic? Perhaps not. An alcoholic who has means to buy his own? Sure.
You seem to believe that alcoholics, by definition, greedily snatch bottles of booze whenever and however they can get them, hoarding them hungrily, piling them high, loathe to let a single offered drop go undrunk. If a person is able to turn down an offer of booze, any booze, from anyone, that person can't possibly be an alcoholic, right? Wrong.
Hitchens' refusal of the booze is indicative of nothing other than his desire not to receive it. It doesn't make him alcoholic or non-alcoholic. I do think, however, that his own admission that he can't stop drinking and that the drinking fuels work that he otherwise can not accomplish, does indicate alcoholism. The fact that he has to defend his drinking in print, and that he sneers at people who have stopped drinking (see his new column in the August 2004 Vanity Fair) only lends more credence to this. A normal drinker does not have to defend his drinking, does not muse in print or otherwise as to whether he has a problem with alcohol, and does not feel threatened by people who have stopped drinking. A normal drinker can work, live, lecture, etc. without booze, period.
My point, which I have belabored too long now, is that I don't believe that Hitchens is a normal drinker. I'm glad that the money of his fans won't be spent in a way that hurts him. And yes, I'll get off your blog now. I didn't post to upset anyone--I just hate to see a writer like Hitchens go to waste, and well-intentioned fans help him do it.
He's a drunk. But he's our drunk!
Oh come now... Leave poor Hitch alone...
In the immortal words of Sir Winston Churchill, Hitchens has, "taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me,".
Hitcho, sweetie, I'll buy you a drink any day. And share a smoke.
how courageously pompous hitchens is! Click here.
Now that Hitch is back on track and using his symphonic writing for good, I'll certainly chip in to get him a drink.
{Diatribe elided--not civil, and I was unable to follow the alleged reaoning in it; it appeared to be directed at Hitchens. Confusing; apparently confused.
Leena: Please check the WoC comment policy if you'd like to try again. NM (acting in my capacity as a WoC Marshal)}.