Update: Alexander Cockburn (pronounced co-burn, get yer minds out of the gutter people), was also contacted by Ian Parker for the Hitchens profile since Cockburn and Hitchens were once good friends.
Parker asks Cockburn: You were friends and allies, and now you're not; how would you describe what happened in between?
Cockburn replies: As so often with friends and former friends, it's a matter of what you're prepared to put up with and for how long.
Cockburn reproduces the entire e-mail exchange over at Counterpunch. It's illuminating.
This month's New Yorker has a profile of Christopher Hitchens. Ezra Klein wonders why Hitchens merits a profile now, but I believe it's because while Hitchens is just batshit insane, he's never boring, always controversial, and doesn't engender any neutral feelings. You either like him or you don't. Face it, the guy always looks like he could use a shower, a shave, and a month or two at Betty Ford.
Hitchens can never resist shooting off his mouth and the profile includes a recounting of what sounds like a classic Hitchens outburst at a dinner party.
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