Cranberry Juice and Vodka Lime
Hi. It’s 12:15 on Sunday morning and the streets of New York are humming with drinkers. It’s almost the cold season. East coast cold is different than any other kind of cold in the country, it’s humid and bitter and can chill you to the bone. New Yorkers know this and are bracing themselves. The long black and grey wool coats are out with lamb’s wool & cashmere & black hats & gloves clasping scarves to the face, red eyes in the wind, and all walking faster than ever —straight to the bars. I found myself doing the same. 
I drank my first “cosmopolitan” tonight with a friend from school. Despite the ice, hers looked so warm and sweet I had to try one myself. The color makes it look more tropical than Manhattan-ish. And boy, it was tasty – Cranberry juice, triple sec, vodka and lime juice. Yum. Too bad I’m in the middle of finals I would have stayed for another round.
As I walked home, one mittened hand clutching my scarf, I thought about Hunter and wondered what he would say about James Baker’s report about the state of Iraq and how it instantly re-shaped the national coverage of the war. The day after Baker released it, even Israel reported they too wanted peace and would leave the West Bank despite the fact that last week, they said that Bush’s invasion in Iraq had brought stability to the Middle East.
Baker, what an interesting man, to have that much authority to change the dialogue just by stepping on to the scene. Gosh, I almost developed an instant crush. But then, of course I realized, he is simply fixing his own mistake. Remember the 2000 Florida election scandal? Hunter shook his head when James Baker got involved and flew the fleet of jets full of lawyers in to “handle it”. Hunter had great respect and deep distrust of James Baker. So, it’s interesting to see this all go down. Let’s keep in touch and watch what happens. I’ll post some links for you tomorrow maybe, I’m tired tonight and need to log off, but not before I post something that Hunter wrote about Lisl Auman in re: the system.
When I logged on line tonight after I got home, I read the disturbing report about the United States’(our) love of locking people up in prisons. The International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College in London reported that more people are behind bars in the United States than in any other country. China ranks second with 1.5 million prisoners, followed by Russia with 870,000. A U.S. Justice Department report released on November 30 showed that a record 7 million people — or one in every 32 American adults – were in the system (locked up, on probation or on parole). And 2.2 million actually in prison or jail. We now imprison more people for drug law violations than all of Western Europe (I think has double the population of the United States.)
This is from Feb. 5th, 2001 on ESPN:
I don’t do this very often – Never, in fact – but this case is such as outrage that it haunts me and gives me bad dreams at night… I am not a Criminal Lawyer, but I have what they call “a very strong background” in the Criminal Justice System and many of my friends and associates are widely known as the best legal minds in that cruel and deadly business.It is no place for amateurs, and even seasoned professionals can make mistakes that are often fatal. The System can grind up the Innocent as well as the Guilty, and that is what happened to 20-year-old Lisl Auman when the Denver District Attorney [now governor of Colorado!] put her on trial for a murder he knew she didn’t commit, then put her in prison for the rest of her Life Without Parole….
—Hunter S. Thompson, Hey Rube
The beauty is that we can end on a positive note tonight, because Lisl is free, and although she is not out of the system yet, she is out of prison. But there are so many more behind bars. My advice to you, on this cold night in New York, is to have yourself a good lawyer, because they can be the last buttress between the cold streets of New York, and the cold bars of a prison cell.
Jesus, I’m getting grim, aren’t I? I’m sleepy too so… Goodnight.
Until next time, your friend, still feeling the effects of cranberry,
Anita Thompson
Central Standard Time:
