Oh, how I've been itching to tell this story. Salam Pax, the Baghdad blogger, worked for Peter Maass of the Times Magazine, one of my best friends. Except Peter -- who is, normally, on the ball -- has only now found out. Peter tells us a lot about Salam's taste in music (The Cranberries), books (Man in a High Castle), and carpets. Man in a High Castle, incidentially, takes place in an alternate universe in which the Nazis won. Salam revisionists -- American hawks who don't like the Baghdad blogger's critical tone -- can read into that what they will. As far as I'm concerned, we liberated Iraq so the local geeks and misfits can read troubling science fiction, in Arabic, preferably.
   Anyway, Peter leaves out one nuance. On Thursday night, his first evening back in New York, a bunch of us went out for dinner. Peter, who was taking some time to realize what a celebrity Salam had become, would tell his war stories. But all anyone wanted to know, gallingly oblivious of media status, was this: "So, Salam, what's he like? What was it like working with him?"
Salam Pax Is Real - How do I know Baghdad's famous blogger exists? He worked for me. [Peter Maass, in Slate]