cruise update: the Ralph angle
Man, is Ralph Nader odd up close. His funereal demeanor almost never
lifts except when he’s laughing at his own occasional jokes. The
laughter of children leaves him uncharmed. He had some factotum
running around announcing when he’d be holding audiences - he’d come
to tables in the bar at 10:30 and disclose that Ralph would be
speaking in the library in 10 minutes - when almost everyone was
interested in chatting and having a nightcap. He refused to come to a
speakers’ dinner last night because the restaurant would be too loud
to have a “substantive” exchange - by which I suppose he meant listen
to Ralph hold forth, because we were all having quite pleasant and
intelligent conversations. Instead he stayed on the ship. One of the
people who’d joined him for a bit coughed, and Ralph, alarmed, asked
if she had a cold. She said she had a little one, so Ralph demanded
she re-seat herself on the other side of the table and never looked
up for the rest of the time she was there. This confirms my suspicion
that his trade obsession really is at base an anxiety about
contamination by foreign pathogens. He’s a very smart guy, and has
done some admirable things in his life, but is really kind of a dick.
Doug