"I used to be a Marine..."

[September 13th, 2006] "I used to be a Marine," says the very overweight, florid, shambling individual who half-falls into my cab from one of the lesser strip clubs in town. "Now," he says with great alacrity, "I am a drunk."

I don't quite know what to say. What pops into my head is, "What a piece of work is man!" Absolutely the last thing I expected to hear was him responding, "How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action.... Ah fuck, I forget that bit—is it the god or the angel?" "Angel," I say, "Then, 'in apprehension how like a god!'" He nods contentedly. "Yes, yes, 'The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!'" Hamlet, Act II, Scene II.

"Did you see much of the beauty of the world in there tonight?" I ask. "Not a damn bit of it," he responds. He chuckles, remembering more of the speech: "'Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither,' or at least none of the women in there."

Apparently between the Marine bit and the drunk bit he was an English teacher. I find myself wildly curious about this man. What chain of events led him here? I think about my own life; I should be starting a post-doc at Cornell about now, instead of doing this. But a car accident knocked me off the academic merry-go-round years ago, and now the brass ring is long out of reach.

I would have asked him, but his gentle snoring prohibited it.