Friday, January 19, 2024

An author shares absurdist details from his visit to Langley to speak to the CIA's creative writing group

Johannes Lichtman at The Paris Review:

I pulled up to the gate, and an aggressive police officer questioned me about why I had two badges.

“Didn’t it seem strange to you to get a second badge when you’d just got your first one?”

“I’ve never been here before,” I said. “Everything seems strange to me.”

A different cop told him to give it a rest, handed me a third badge

...

When I later told Vivian about the mean cop and the nice one, she said, “They’re always doing that good cop–bad cop thing.”

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The Starbucks at Langley is the only Starbucks where baristas aren’t allowed to ask for your name.