That afternoon, she said, pretty much all her customers had made some kind of comment about the so-called “Rapture”. This was a cataclysmic event. The end of the world, no less, as predicted by an 89-year-old man from Oakland, California. A guy in need of urgent mental health care rather than having his bunkum crazy religious theories promoted around the world.
Jessika knew this, understood it well, which made it more embarrassing for her to admit that she was still scared of what might happen when the clock struck six.
She said her two-year-old daughter was at home while she worked and what if something actually did happen? She'd have spent her last day on earth apart from her kid while plying drunks with drinks for $1 tips. At least we know what's important, we agreed, as the clock hit 6.01pm, just after the world was supposed to end.
I hit her up for another drink.
The absurd Rapture predictions, though, came a far second to the ludicrous rants defending Dominque Strauss-Kahn over the past week. “DSK”, as he is sometimes chummily referred to, was head of the International Monetary Fund until the small matter of alleged sexual assault in a New York hotel suite inconvenienced him.
Most of us would imagine it to be a tough gig defending the indefensible (unless you're a lawyer). Not so, Bernard-Henri Levy, a renowned French philosopher and writer. Levy is super-smart but not intelligent enough to leave his loyalty at the door for this mucky case.
In an ill-judged defence of his friend “of 20 years”, Levy made several errors (the American judicial system is “accusatory” was one) but none grander than claiming Strauss-Kahn is the victim in this mess.
A clumsier high-profile defender was Ben Stein, an actor, economist, and former speechwriter for President Nixon. Stein asked why, if Strauss-Kahn is so guilty, had he not been charged with anything similar previously?
He also, bizarrely, asked, “Can anyone tell me any economists who have been convicted of violent sex crimes?” Oh, and a “short, fat, old man” would have had difficulty in forcing a woman to do what has been alleged.
It turns out, of course, the New York Police Department and Manhattan District Attorney's office (the same guys you see in many Law & Order episodes) had done their work.
The alleged victim was apparently physically traumatised recounting solid testimony to investigators; two other hotel employees were allegedly propositioned by Strauss-Kahn during his brief stay at the Sofitel; and minutes before Port Authority police nabbed the IMF boss on the Air France plane bound for Paris he allegedly told a female flight attendant: “Quel beau cul!”
Or, if you prefer in English, what a nice arse.
Rapture, Levy, Stein: That's a word that could have been applied to many people over the past seven days.
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