One year ago today (December 15) Christopher Hitchens died from esophageal cancer. In May 2011 he gave a reflective interview with Anderson Cooper talking about life, death, prayer (no effect), and the bogusness of “closure”. Cooper, a Vanderbilt, does well here on these topics. His father died when he was 10, he brother Carter committed suicide in 1988.

Apologies for the stretched video. I’m sensitive to 4:3 images stretched to widescreen, and am stupefied when people don’t notice/care. Tried to correct it, but this is the way the CNN video is.

Cooper: “You burned the candle at both ends.”

Hitchens: “And it gave a lovely light.”