Henry Allen, we know you're a Pulitzer-winning critic, a respected old newspaper veteran, all that jazz. But please -- the death of Ken Lay does not call for a rewrite of Hunter S. Thompson's Nixon obit. Ken Lay was a garden-variety crook, not the near-mythic villain of a generation. You are a Washington Post staff writer, not an iconoclastic, self-destructive legend. Here are some phrases that should not appear in the Washington Post:
- "man of strange and constant demands"
- "gibbering with anguish as fire-eyed psychopaths stare at him for unblinking hours"
- "the cruel grenades of memories"
- "strange and vicious outrage"
Hank (may we call you Hank?), you're supposed to get this stuff out of your system while you're writing for your college paper. Unless you're Matt Taibbi.
