September 1, 2003
To: Brian Buckingham
From: Conor Friedersdorf
Subject: My Debt to You
Buck,
When I arrived at college you lent me a copy of The Sun Also Rises, supplied Henry Weinhardt’s beer until I turned 21 and introduced me to caps: “It’s not a drinking game, it’s a drinking sport.”
More importantly, you went to Seville first and insisted I spend my semester abroad there so fervently that I followed.
It’s payback time.
You’ve been working a year longer than I for far more hours every week. In the next six months your fancy consulting firm will pay you twice my annual salary. As a Christmas bonus I’ll get a $20 gift card to Ralph’s Supermarket; you’ll receive a check with three zeroes. And did I mention that you’re working for 70 soul-crushing hours a week?
In a year’s time, you’ll be even more ready than I am to return to Seville. I’ll be there: I hereby commit.
Will you be?
Hasta Pronto,
Conor
I really don’t understand these. But they are vaguely amusing.
— Geoff · Jun 30, 10:14 PM · #
I used to buy almost out of date Henry Weinhardt’s private reserve by the case from a distributor out on West 11th. Then David Demos and I would drink it while doing homework for Dr. Rudy Hwa’s physics class. I still have the oversized blank-book I used to for that class (on one side) and Anatomy for Artist (on the other). I take it down once or twice a year when something (like this post) moves me to nostalgia.
I never read The Sun Also Rises, but that didn’t stop me from referencing it in a melancholy blog post I made last week.
— Tony Comstock · Jul 2, 12:36 AM · #