> I have always thought that Alexander Cockburn was very smart, and
> nothing
> would make me happier to be in the same club as such an idiot.
The one time I met him, back in '86, I was riding up the elevator to _The Nation_'s office and wondered who the guy in the shorts and the Hawaiian shirt (if I remember correctly) was. Then the receptionist in the office called him Alex, and I was a bit too in awe of him to introduce myself. I guess I didn't really meet him, then, did I?
Anyway, I was so in awe because he had such a corruscating way of slamming the swine that run the world. Over the years, the ability to criticize has become less important to me than the ability to oppose--not that criticism isn't useful, but it just isn't enough, and it seems to me that Cockburn doesn't have much more than that.
> Related to Claud Cockburn, I wonder? Or Cynthia?
Claud's son--it's where the title of his column, "Beat the Devil", comes from. I think it's one of Bogart's lesser vehicles--I've got a tape somewhere, but never watched it.
All the best,
John A