Two clues:
1. Distinctive voice
2. National Review
Give up?
Ramesh Ponnuru. At a French restaurant in Manhattan. (Ha).
I was eating with my friend Charlie, at a very small (and very good) French bistro on Park Avenue, when I hear a very distinctive voice coming from the table across the room. I think to myself, “Man, that guy sounds just like Ramesh Ponnuru did when he was on The Daily Show.” I turn and look. Indeed, it appears to be Ramesh Ponnuru.
I turn to Charlie. “Is that Ramesh Ponnuru?”
“Who?”
“Ramesh Ponnuru. He writes for the National Review and wrote that book about The Culture of Death.”
“Culture of Death?”
“How liberals are killing America through abortion and right-to-die advocacy.”
[Laughs] “As opposed to through the death penalty and war?”
“Right.”
“Should I talk to him?”
“Sure, if you want.”
“What’s his name?”
“Ramesh Ponnuru.”
“I’ll go ask him if it’s him. I’ll be like, ‘Hey, is it really you?!’ and see if he says yes.”
“Do it!”
At this point we look over and realize that Ramesh and his female companion (who appears to be just a friend) have both disappeared from the table. Moment of panic. Charlie gets up and runs outside to see if they’re there. They aren’t. “They must be in the bathroom!” he announces, and walks to the back of the restaurant — where he promptly walks in on Ramesh Ponnuru peeing. Whoops.
While he’s gone, I talk to the waiters to see if it really is Ramesh. They don’t know who he is, but they do know the woman he’s with — and she is apparently close friends with John O’Sullivan, editor of the National Review. I decide it must be Ramesh if he’s hanging out with the National Review crowd.
In the meantime, Charlie and Ramesh are having a little chat. Charlie, keep in mind, does not read the National Review and, beyond William F. Buckley, has no idea about who writes for it, and certainly doesn’t know who Ramesh Ponnuru is. The converation goes something like this:
Charlie: Hey, are you Ramesssh Amanaa… (trails off since he obviously has no idea how to pronounce this man’s name)
Ramesh: Yeah, Ramesh Ponnuru. And you are?
Charlie: …Charlie Smith. [Awkward pause, because Charlie is perpetually convinced that no one will actually believe that his real name is Charlie Smith].
Both laugh uncomfortably.
Charlie: Well, uh, I’m a big fan! Nice to meet you.
Ramesh turns away, and walks past my table, at which point I introduce myself. I tell him that I read his writing on the National Review, and that I write for a feminist blog that occassionally reviews his work. He asks which one, I say Feministe. “That’s a group blog, right?” he says. Surprised, I say yes. “I’ve read it a few times, I think,” he says.
Woah! (Joey from Blossom voice)
And that, my friends, was my brush with fame.
(for the record, he was really nice).
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He wouldn’t have been so cordial if he knew about your plans to build a time machine and canvass his mother with pamphlet about birth control roughly a year before his birth.
I’m not usually the type to be bothered by this sort of thing, but when he was on the Daily Show I was really kind of weirded out by his voice vs. his physical appearance. I think I’m used to all of these angry conservative hatemongers having loud, obnoxious and threatening voices, and then here’s this guy that sounds like a twelve year old kid. Threw me off.
I’m rambling; anyway, if I saw him in person, I think I’d have to call him an asshole.
I don’t know Jill, I think I’m with KnifeGhost – I would have gotten all culture of death on Ramesh’s ass…
I’d give him a two-handed shake, look him right in the eye with a smile, and say, “your intellectual dishonesty directly aids the deaths of innocent people.”
And I’d hold that shake just a little too long.
Nice anecdote, Jill, but not as impressive as dancing with Shakira!
;)
Gotta say, I kind of pitied the guy after seeing him on both the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. After writing a book with such a provocative title, I thought he’d be more ready to defend his thesis. He wasn’t particularly strong in either case. Perhaps he didn’t really believe what he wrote???
No Doughy Pantload Goldberg? Color me disappointed.
Oh well, fame and what not. It’s what keeps the punditocracy going.
Let me be a strong defender of the notion that it is always right and virtuous to treat one’s most virulent opponents with courtesy and politeness. I’ve skimmed his book, and it’s a wild over-reach — but it’s his ideas that deserve scorn, not his person. (Then again, I’m from the school that suggests that one’s politics are an easily changeable part of one’s identity, so that may not give me a lot of cred here.)
Anyhow, based on your two clues, Jill, I thought you were talking about William F. Buckley.
That dates me.
Your brush with fame? This nobody conservative gets to meet Jill from Feministe and you think you’re the one who had a brush with fame?
You didn’t get a picture? :(
punkassmarc: There’s no profit in flaming someone in person unless you really mean business. C’mon, a staffer at the National Review? He’s probably read it all in his e-mail bag. Now, if you were on Bill O’Reilly’s show…
I caught both of Ponnuru’s Comedy Central appearances on youtube. He extremely bright and acquitted himself quite well. It’s a shame that the audiences of those shows mistakenly believe they’re at a pep rally, though.
Anyway, it’s cool that you got to meet him (and that he got to meet you).