Monday in San Francisco I had dinner with a friend who told me about his first interview as a travel editor. It was with Peter Matthiessen, whose book The Snow Leopard had been an influential work in my friend's professional life.
They met in a restaurant and Matthiessen asked my friend if he was going to record the interview. My friend said there was no need to as he would remember everything that Matthiessen said. They ordered some food and some wine, then more food and wine.
A day later, when my friend sat down to write up the interview he realized that he didn't remember a thing. He called Matthiessen who said, "That's OK. It was a wonderful dinner."
