My favorite story of the day comes from, of all places, USA Today. It makes me feel like a wayward traveler or something. Anyway,Taylor Branch is coming out with a book about the Clinton Presidency based on hours and hours of secret interviews with Bill whilst he was President. Apparently, Clinton hid the tapes in his sock drawer so I would have called the book, The Sock Drawer Tapes. You missed the boat on that title, Taylor…

The best bit in Susan Page’s story is about everyone’s favorite drunken Russian Uncle, Boris Yeltsin:

He [Clinton] also relayed howBoris Yeltsin‘s late-night drinking during a visit to Washington in 1995 nearly created an international incident. The Russian president was staying at Blair House, the government guest quarters. Late at night, Clinton told Branch, Secret Service agents foundYeltsin clad only in his underwear, standing alone on Pennsylvania Avenue and trying to hail a cab. He wanted a pizza, he told them, his words slurring.

The next night, Yeltsin eluded security forces again when he climbed down back stairs to the Blair House basement. A building guard took Yeltsin for a drunken intruder until Russian and U.S. agents arrived on the scene and rescued him.

The image of a shitfaced Yeltsin in his underwear almost renders me speechless. I do wonder, however, if they were boxers or briefs. I’ve heard tales of a naked and soused Churchill wandering about the White House but he never hit the road like Boris. I think Winston preferred room service to pizza: aristocrats are like that and nobody ever accused Boris of being an aristo…