The wet paper bag

Because of tonight's book launch/ boxing match, there has been a lot of talk in the office about fighting – who has done it and who has not.

I'm always shocked to discover how few people I know have even thrown a punch since their childhood. It's similar to the shock I feel when I find out how many people have never worked in a bar or restaurant, something I always assumed was pretty much universal. I'm no brawler, so I always assume the very low number of altercations I've been in since high school should stand as a kind of absolute minimum.

And then I came across this, from Slate's paraphrased excerpts from Bob Woodward's new book about the decision to invade Iraq:

Page 143: In the run-up to the Iraq war, [Colin] Powell notes that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice have never seen combat. "You know," Powell says. "the problem with these guys is they've never been in a bar fight."

Some variation of that quote, with varying degress of literalness, is always running through my mind when I'm at a book event. Boxing match or no, it'll be running through there tonight, too.