Fleeing the rain by driving down to Valencia on Sunday, will return via La Jonquera with a bootfull of vermut…
Could be worse.
At the end of the 70s I worked for a London based conference production company, who had a regular gig producing events for IBM EMEA region. For one of the events, Kissinger was demanded as guest speaker. After negotiating a substantial fee, a deal was done and the event came and went.
The production company concerned were not terribly good at paying their bills on time, so we workers were not too surprised when 29 days after the event, a large limo with blacked-out windows parked right outside the front door and five Hollywood style heavies got out (black suits, shades, earpieces etc). One positioned himself by the front door to prevent other arrivals/exits, one stood by the reception desk and forbade phone calls while the other two went to the accounts office and ‘offered’ the FD a lift to the company bank where he was ‘requested’ to withdraw the entire fee in cash. Having done so, he was then returned to the office where he spent the rest of the afternoon in a quivering silence.
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Nice anecdote, suppose that if he could deal with China et al, a UK production company was like fly swatting (nothing personal @Brian !)
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Your FD was lucky, if IBM security had got hold of him it would have been curtains.
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Bourdain was absolutely correct.
"In 2018, he retweeted the passage, writing, “Frequently, I’ve come to regret things I’ve said. This, from 2001, is not one of those times.”
In Bourdain’s 2001 memoir, “A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines,” he wrote, “Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia — the fruits of his genius for statesmanship — and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milosevic,” a reference to Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav and Serbian leader who was on trial for war crimes when he died in prison in 2006.
“Any journalist who has ever been polite to Henry Kissinger, you know, f— that person,” he told the outlet, who noted that he grew increasingly indignant. “I’m a big believer in moral gray areas, but when it comes to that guy, in my view he should not be able to eat at a restaurant in New York.”
It can’t be said often enough: Henry Kissinger was one of the worst of the worst. His actions over Cambodia, Chilé, et al are blood soaked.