excellent, as usual, krugman on the bush credibility issue.

thinking of columnists, was looking through my copy of tim crouse's wonderful book the boys on the bus and came across this paragraph about hunter s. thompson, crouse, and washington post writer david broder having a late afternoon meeting.

"we headed up the street to the next bar in sight, the new york lounge. it was greatly to broder's credit that he didn't flinch as we entered the place, which I later found out had been taken over by the Post's linotypists. the reporters had their five o'clock beers a couple of doors up, at the more respectable Post Bar. The New York Lounge was a grimy one-room affair, dark enough to suggest that no light bulb had been changed since the fifties. there was a jukebox at the back, playing smokey robinson tunes, and a women bartender named Lou behind the bar. we sat down in a rear booth, avoiding the part of the seat where the spring was coming through. Thompson put in a complicated order of Margaritas and beer, I ordered a Scotch, and Broder asked for a Coke. An extremely disciplined man, he never smoked and hardly ever took a hard drink; his only vice was chewing on his fingernails."

Crouse's book, which came out in 1973 is a highly entertaining read.