Alcohol and Hard Boiled Writers at the New York Times

The New York Times has a blog about booze. More precisely, it is about alcohol in American life (allow me to sum up the role of alcohol in American life: Everyone loves it, even the self-righteous types who hate it because then they wouldn't have anything to be self righteous about.) Anyway, writer Brian McDonald has a post has a post about the evolution of his reading habits, that leans heavily on Hammett and Chandler. He also relates an anecdote about Hunter S. Thompson setting himself on fire. Don't get too excited, though, someone put him out.