emails John Podhoretz:

“It’s how I know I’m not a bigoted, racist scum.”

Such wit, such eloquence, such insight, such diction!

Over the years, I’ve received many emails calling me “scum,” but never before one calling me “a … scum.” To achieve that exquisite command of the English language, you have to be a distinguished a man of letters, a John Updike or a John Podhoretz.

Hanna Rosin wrote in 1998 that Mr. Podhoretz’s colleagues would spontaneously assemble to mutually admire the latest examples of his superb prose style and penetrating brilliance:

… around the Washington Times offices, the [Podhoretz] column was often read out loud in Podhoretz’s absence, for comic value, in a ritual famously called Podenfreude ….

UPDATE: Mr. Podhoretz has graciously supplied me, free of charge, with another sample of his genius:

“If you think I lack them [wit, eloquence, etc.], I imagine you think I have too much melanin in my skin.”

Amazing as it may seem, the rumors that Mr. Podhoretz maintains a staff of Nobel Laureates and Oscar-winning screenwriters to craft his devastating comebacks for him are not true. The reality is that, somehow, he makes them up himself!