Andreas Kluth talks Hannibal
At Red Herring we used to do a thing called “Fish or Cut Bait,” part restaurant review, part character assassination. We’d take some notable innovator to a fancy dinner, attempt to get them smashed and write about both (my favorite was the one with Apple legend Jean Louis Gassee, who was contemptuous and favored very nice wines). Andreas Kluth, the Economist’s Los Angeles correspondent, just had the same done to him at Zocalo Public Square.
Andreas talked about his work and his new book, Hannibal and Me, over a couple of glasses of Lateral Bordeaux. The picture wasn’t flattering, but Andreas is never dull.
The book is reviewed here and plugged here, and also given a read by the inimitable Mr. Crotchety (I confess I sometimes wonder if Mr. Crotchety is Andreas’ mouthpiece, a la Ben Franklin’s Silence Dogood or Mike Royko’s Slats Grobnik). It’s high on my list, which never seems to get any shorter, a consequence of knowing lots of good writers with valuable things to say.
Thanks, Michael.
The picture may be unflattering, but it was less unflattering than a picture taken 10 or 20 minutes later (over the SECOND Lateral Bordeaux). 😉
BTW, HIS name was Andres (Martinez), mine is Andreas, as in the saint who had a fault named after him.
Mr Crotchety is real, and I know his identity. I’m pushing him to get his own blog, so stay tuned…
Andreas,
Never have I missed a copy editor more. it’s bad enough to spell a name wrong, but a friend’s name? (with friends like me, who needs…)
This is what I get for trying to do two things at once.
Mr. Crotchety’s style is so different from yours that I figured he was real. But FakeAndreasKluth, done by the man himself, would be a fine bend in that genre.
Are you coming out east on book tour?
You know you’ve hit the big time when somebody suggest a FakeINSERTNAME. Thank you.
Book tour: don’t you know that book tours are dead? At least, i’ve been told so. It’s all “viral” this or that nowadays. Whatever that means. In practice: nothing.
So no, no plans for a book tour right now.
“The man who renounces himself, comes to himself.” (R.W. Emerson)
If I could like your comment, Mr. Crotchety, I would do so.