Thoughts for the Day.

Isn't Christopher Hitchens just a poor man's Gore Vidal? Similar enough, though Vidal had the family and social link to American intelligentsia, back when we had an educated class. And as Vidal noted in his memoirs, what separated him from his peers long gone: he took chose not to smoke back when so many of his generation were lighting up.

Not a fan of Hitchens -- or even a follower -- myself. But it's interesting to note the differences between those more cautious, willing to live genteely for a cause (and eventually, doesn't every wise old man transcend causes and live his life for the mere value of life itself?) and those who throw themselves headfirst into the fray, the devil be damned?

The Jimmie Trimble story in Palimpsest, plus a military vet's accounting of Jimmie's final minutes on Iwo Jima -- shared elsewhere -- might help explain the path Vidal took; you have to wonder what a writer learns from the deaths, and lives, of others.

On February 24, 1945, the Third Marine Division went ashore. They were soon suffering heavy casualties from Japanese rocket attacks launched from a hill known as Number 362. On February 27, Trimble's platoon commander asked for eight volunteers to locate the position of the rocket sites. Private Trimble was among the first to volunteer.

The following night, four two-man reconnaissance teams were in foxholes ahead of the rest of the platoon. At midnight a flare signalled an attack, and immediately Japanese soldiers were among the American Marines in their foxholes.

There was shouting and screaming, rifle shots and grenade explosions. In the chaos, Trimble suffered a bayonet wound to his right shoulder while still in his foxhole. Then two grenades exploded, severely wounding him. Seconds later a Japanese soldier with a mine strapped to his body jumped in the foxhole, wrapped himself around Jimmie Trimble and detonated the mine, killing himself and the young ball player.