trying to grok

“… I thought that for a European intellectual there was nothing more important than to understand what was happening in America, to go and tell the Americans what was wrong with their society.”
“I’m not anti-American — I can’t stand the French prejudice against America.”

OK, right.

“For instance, I think I helped to persuade Jacques Chirac to bomb the Serb positions around Sarajevo and thus stop a massacre.”

“I hate war — it scares and disgusts me, and it leaves me bitter and sad.”

He disgusts him so much he got involved.

“I know it’s odd, but I find the idea of eating at home repugnant.”

No Bernard, you’re repugnant.

Oh, thanks for that! Just what I needed at the end of a long day. Talk about shallow! Can you imagine sitting next to him at a dinner party? He's like Proust squared.

That Lileks is a sick, sick man. No, really, he's...
oh the heck with it, I read it over an hour ago and am still giggling:

"and I note that the stairs work the same way going up as they do going down. This was something the ancients knew, and understood. I believe it gave them comfort."

hee, hee!!