Mark Judge’s memoir, Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk, was available for free online for a brief, beautiful moment today (Oct. 3). The Internet Archive posted a scanned copy of the 1997 book, but it was taken down within hours. In a message, the Internet Archive cited “various reasons” for the removal, from a decision of the uploader to a Terms of Use violations. The out-of-print book is still selling for $1,899.99 on Amazon.
Judge’s GenX addiction chronicle covers his booze-soaked adolescence at Georgetown Prep alongside former high-school classmate and current Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Judge’s prose is of sudden interest because of clues it holds to Kavanaugh’s behavior, and possible corroboration of accusations by Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. Judge was allegedly a witness to that encounter, although he has said he has “no memory of this alleged incident.” Ford attended Holton-Arms, an all-girls school about 10 miles from Georgetown Prep.
Wasted details years of drinking, football, and sex. While Kavanaugh is not directly described in the book, most characters have thinly disguised pseudonyms, and a “Bart O’Kavanaugh” appears several times. An editors note in the book describes it as “based on actual experiences. In some cases, the names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.”
In one passage, “O’Kavanaugh” is portrayed speaking to a girl named Mary:
“So how do you like Prep?” Mary asked.
“It’s cool.”
“Do you know Bart O’Kavanaugh?”
“Yeah. He’s around here somewhere.”
“I heard he puked in someone’s car the other night.”
“Yeah. He passed out on his way back from a party.”
In a Senate hearing last week, Kavanaugh denied under oath that he has ever blacked out from drinking. The book describes behavior by O’Kavanaugh that would seem to contradict this account, which a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s has also called a “blatant mischaracterization” of the nominee’s drinking behavior at school.