Well, despite a grievous Yankees
loss, last night’s NRO throwdown at Trinity Hall here in Dallas went pretty
well. We had a nice turnout, and more or less commandeered the patio at
Trinity Hall, an Irish pub here in Dallas. You couldn’t have asked for
colder beer, better weather, or more splendid company. I got to visit with
most everybody, however briefly, and was pleased to discover that so many
folks thought it was a great idea to have conservative meet-and-greets like
this. One guy, an Air Force reservist named Bill Brant, talked about how he
used to keep up with The Corner faithfully this past summer while posted to
Pakistan. I can imagine reading Derb whilst residing in subcontinental
climes would make one feel positively Kiplingesque. Someone else, a longtime
NR subscriber, talked about how back in the 1970s, NR put out a little book
containing the “Sayings of Chairman Bill.” Take that, Mao! Wouldn’t it be
cool to release an updated version? We had folks drive in from all over,
even a judge from way down in Austin. Someone has a sister who makes
T-shirts for a living, and so we’re looking into the feasibility of
designing a T-shirt for us merry band of Texan NRO-niks. Much was made at
one table of Rich’s love of speaking to Texas audiences, so we’re going to
try to coax him this way soon. Oh, two more items: at one end of the patio
sat a woman who sneered, “National Review, isn’t that a Republican
magazine?” I offered her a subscription card. At the other end was an older
woman with a long braid down her back, a Little House on the Prairie-style
dress, and a long-stemmed pipe in her mouth. Regrettably, she wasn’t part of
our group.