A memory, courtesy of Ira Glass’s This American Life:
Jonathan: I was a cello player. Every high school has the nerdy kid who brings his cello to class. And that would have been me.
Ira Glass: Every high school also has bullies, and there was one guy who picked on Jonathan. Jonathan remembers him as a gladhander, somebody with lots of friends. And also…
Jonathan: A jock — he hung out in the weight room. He squatted something over 500 pounds when he was in high school.
Ira Glass: And you actually know the number?
Jonathan: I believe it was 510 pounds. A number that I remember almost thirty years later.
Ira Glass: Because everybody knew the number.
Jonathan: Because everybody knew this.
I remember him, but I would be very surprised if he remembered me. He was the sort of person who would walk across the street to be unpleasant to somebody.
Or in my most notable instance, I was walking down the hall to history class, and he hip-checked me, I was carrying my cello and went sailing down the stairs with my cello.
Youâd be surprised how times a cello in this case can bounce. It was a lot of money in repairs. He was laughing about it to his friends. I suspect he forgot about it five minutes later. I didnât.
Ira Glass: And so who was he? Who was this guy?
Jonathan: That guy was Jack Abramoff.
Hear the rest, including Jonathan’s delight at Abramoff’s downfall: “Itâs just beautiful, itâs more than I could have wished for.”
Thanks to TPMm Reader GR.
