1/. Happy 93rd birthday Noam Chomsky!
Years ago, I was working for @libertyhq & Chomsky was keynote speaker at our conference
I volunteered to pick him up from an event at the LSE & drive him across town to our event
I parked outside - on a yellow line - & ran in to get him.
2/ I ran up a staircase & along a corridor to the lecture hall where Chomsky had just finished his lecture
He was at the front of the hall surrounded by a mob of eager students
I fought my way to through the crowd, eventually managing to introduce myself & slowly prise him away
3/ When we got outside, a traffic warden was writing me a ticket
I tried to explain but the traffic warden was having none of it
"But this is Noam Chomsky! One of world’s greatest thinkers” I said
"If he's so clever,” he replied. “How come he’s parked on a double yellow line?"
4/. POSTSCRIPT:
Noam Chomsky was sympathetic about my parking ticket, especially as he had received a fine himself that morning
He’d travelled down from Oxford with his old friend, Eric Hobsbawn
“Eric told me we didn’t need tickets as they never check them”
They got caught
5/. “What would a Martian observer make of our dedicated march towards destruction?” asks Chomsky
I compare him to that Martian: possessed of a superior intellect & insight, travelling amongst us explaining things with an other-worldly patience & sagacity newint.org/features/web-e…
6/ After that first encounter, I stayed in touch with Chomsky & I try to see him whenever he's in London
In 2010, I sent him my piece about "his final intn'l speaking tour”
He wrote back thanking me for the article & listing his future intn'l tour dates!
afrik-news.com/article17159.h…
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