I admire Hitchens for not embroidering the incident with fabulous tales of his bravery. Truth was, he was blindsided, knocked to the ground, kicked while incapacitated, and then punched by surprise through a window. He didn’t get a chance to land any blows back.

Most macho men would have embellished the story with various versions of “And then I kicked his ass!” Kudos to Hitchens for keeping it real.