Deus Vult

I had a conversation today with Brant Kuehn, who isn't flipping out about Alito like the rest of us are, after Eugene Volokh. He pointed out that I would most likely have had an allergic reaction no matter who the President appointed--he being, after all, the President, and, well, that's all we need say about that. Piggybacking on that, there's a reasonable argument a-brewing that Alito is a fairly reasonable justice. It's an argument I'm not going to make, mostly because it's late and I'm tired. Brutal honesty. But I think it's out there, at least--and I did think it was odd how quickly Slate flipped over into attack mode.

All that aside, I did want to chuck an egg at an anecdote wholly worthless for judging Alito's fitness for the second-highest court in the land,* but amusing as a jab at Princetonites and their ilk:

David Grais '72, who roomed with Alito for three years at Princeton, said they were both "too studious for [their] good." But he, too, experienced his roommate's lighter side.

"One of our other roommates pulled some practical joke on Sam, which I do not remember," Grais said in an email. "The other guy drank scotch-on-the-rocks every night. Sam retaliated by putting salt in the water used to make ice cubes in the refrigerator in our room. The other guy went through a full bottle of terrible-tasting scotch before realizing that his ice cubes had been sabotaged."

O! 'Tis a charming diversion, Throckmorton.

*Did that get your hackles up? If so, congratulations! You have fallen into my cunning trap.