The Sunday Times described Hitchens as “Usually armed with a glass of Scotch and an untipped Rothmans cigarette.” In late 2007 he briefly gave up smoking, although resumed during the writing of his memoir and continued until his cancer diagnosis. Hitchens admitted to drinking heavily; in 2003 he wrote that his daily intake of alcohol was enough “to kill or stun the average mule”, arguing that many great writers “did some of their finest work when blotto, smashed, polluted, shitfaced, squiffy, whiffled, and three sheets to the wind.”
George Galloway notably accused Hitchens of being a “drink-sodden ex-Trotskyist popinjay”,[161] to which Hitchens replied, “only some of which is true.”[162] Hitchens later elaborated: “He says that I am an ex-Trotskyist (true), a ‘popinjay’ (true enough, since the word’s original Webster’s definition is a target for arrows and shots), and that I cannot hold a drink (here I must protest).”[163] Hitchens’ wife Carol Blue described him as “obviously an alcoholic, he functions at a really high level and he doesn’t act like a drunk, so the only reason it’s a bad thing is it’s taking out his liver, presumably. It would be a drag for Henry Kissinger to live to a hundred and Christopher to keel over next year.”[164] His profile in The New Yorker described him as drinking “like a Hemingway character: continually and to no apparent effect.”[164]
Oliver Burkeman writes, “Since the parting of ways on Iraq … Hitchens claims to have detected a new, personalised nastiness in the attacks on him, especially over his fabled consumption of alcohol. He welcomes being attacked as a drinker ‘because I always think it’s a sign of victory when they move on to the ad hominem.’ He drank, he said, ‘because it makes other people less boring. I have a great terror of being bored. But I can work with or without it. It takes quite a lot to get me to slur.'”[165]
In his 2010 memoir Hitch-22, Hitchens wrote: “There was a time when I could reckon to outperform all but the most hardened imbibers, but I now drink relatively carefully.” He described his then-current drinking routine on working-days as follows: “At about half past midday, a decent slug of Mr. Walker’s amber restorative, cut with Perrier water (an ideal delivery system) and no ice. At luncheon, perhaps half a bottle of red wine: not always more but never less. Then back to the desk, and ready to repeat the treatment at the evening meal. No ‘after dinner drinks’—most especially nothing sweet and never, ever any brandy. ‘Nightcaps’ depend on how well the day went, but always the mixture as before. No mixing: no messing around with a gin here and a vodka there.”[166]
Reflecting on the lifestyle that supported his career as a writer he said:
I always knew there was a risk in the bohemian lifestyle … I decided to take it because it helped my concentration, it stopped me being bored—it stopped other people being boring. It would make me want to prolong the conversation and enhance the moment. If you ask: would I do it again? I would probably say yes. But I would have quit earlier hoping to get away with the whole thing. I decided all of life is a wager and I’m going to wager on this bit … In a strange way I don’t regret it. It’s just impossible for me to picture life without wine, and other things, fueling the company, keeping me reading, energising me. It worked for me. It really did.[167]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_hitchens
Danny Smith says
November 24, 2015 at 2:06 AMHe's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.
Marti Waterman says
November 24, 2015 at 2:28 AMBen Stein was nicer and more socially conscious in 1995.
Qopel says
November 24, 2015 at 2:59 AMChristopher was a famous atheist. However, he used alcohol do to what god believers do: Distort reality for comfort.
digibu says
November 24, 2015 at 3:08 AMI guess Ben Stein doesn't realize that Richard Butler had a compound in Rathdrum, ID? I'm from near there, and he couldn't be more correct about Sandpoint. It's an amazing town, and the people there aren't backwoods. But there is tons of skinheads in northern Idaho, specifically around Rathdrum.
david duck says
November 24, 2015 at 3:50 AMMy impression of Christopher Hitchens is that there was no substance at all in what he said so eloquently. He just used his language gift to eke out a comfortable living for himself, drinking and smoking himself into an early grave. He wasn't a very deep thinker at all, it was just talking rubbish, booze and the fast buck for him.
USERNAMEfieldempty says
November 24, 2015 at 3:57 AMOh there's a surprise… the Ben Stein who blundered about in the retarded creationist documentary ''Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed'' turns out to be an educated, sharp-minded, erudite person. Devious Shitbag.
jaybone23 says
November 24, 2015 at 4:51 AMCan't believe how prescient Ben Stein was here, though Hitchens does point out that what they were talking about, with regard to Wall Street, had been happening for a long time already.
Andi Levicky says
November 24, 2015 at 5:37 AM33:45 "nobody's even thinking of impeaching him (William Jefferson Clinton) or sending him to jail". 3 years later… Clinton impeached!
Andi Levicky says
November 24, 2015 at 6:07 AMBueller?… Bueller?… Bueller?
scotty says
November 24, 2015 at 6:45 AMstein is such a despicable worm, even back then he is disgusting.
Hitch looks terrific, I like that he drank, but it was the smoking that took him from us too soon.
Bastian B says
November 24, 2015 at 7:32 AMYou quotes in the video description are amazing, thanks for taking the time to write them.
jay762360 says
November 24, 2015 at 7:42 AMBinge drinking 4 drinks, give me a break, damn progressive medical Nazis. Binge drinking is 12 beers and half a fifth of whiskey. People in medicine have implied authority that they abuse and use to convince the real authorities that half of us need to spend a quarter of our income on 'rehabilitation' programs. Crooks, all of them.
David Venegas says
November 24, 2015 at 8:35 AMThe golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.
Leeds Fanzines says
November 24, 2015 at 8:52 AMSort your collar out, Hitch.
Joseph Di Frances says
November 24, 2015 at 9:09 AMSo Hitch (here an openly affectionate appellation) commits slow suicide, alleging, precisely as Bill Wilson did in Alcoholics Anonymous (as he defended his benders to his worried wife) that all the great geniuses conceived their greatest works under the influence. Amazing how the whore Reason (the phrase is Luther's) can justify the willfulness of its possessor with the most arrant nonsense. For all the mellifluous beauty of Mr. Hitchens' expression, one must doubt deeply so much of his very person, even as one irrevocably warms to him. Yes, we are all sick, and this is essential never to forget, but what is all this rational fencing worth? Doctor, heal thine self.
marby602 says
November 24, 2015 at 9:57 AMIn hindsight, it's almost funny to see their shock at their then, level of disgust over de-regulation & special interest bribery of congress………… they had NO idea how much worse it was going to continue getting !!
REPs & DEMs both controlled by the same behind-the-scenes scumbags in CFR !!
Vote INDEPENDENT to put a stop to it !!