From The Department Of "Things We Already Knew"

British journalists are drunks even by their country's exacting standards:

England's scribes consume more wine than any other industry, more liquor and more shots -- in all, enough alcohol to fill 19 pints in a week.

The tradition of Fairlie and Hitchens lives on. If you don't know the work of Henry Fairlie, by the way, a beloved colleague at TNR in the 1980s, you should check out a wonderful new collection of his writing, "Bite The Hand That Feeds You," edited by Jeremy McCarter. His introduction is really superb - told me much I did not know and more I'd forgotten about a great bohemian Tory - and the pieces crackle with life and humor and passion. Perhaps they weren't truly journalism - for they live on, alongside Henry's fearless, love-driven spirit.