Dishwasher duty
For someone who’s notoriously reticent about speaking, Justice Clarence Thomas opened up about matters great (Constitutional jurisprudence) and small (loading the dishwasher) Tuesday night, as he gave the keynote address at a Bill of Rights Institute gala.
“This is a rare sighting for me to be out during the week, especially a sitting week,” he told the crowd, who had assembled to honor students who won the Institute’s “Being an American” Essay Contest.”
And while he spent plenty of time on matters like civic responsibility and his role as a judge, his thoughts kept turning back to domestic life.
“I’d like to thank my bride for being here,” he said. “We’ve been a team for a while and enjoy each other a lot. … I tend to be morose; she tends to be energetic.”
Indeed, he confided that when he gets “down,” he turns to “what I tell my wife is the ‘Inter-Net,’ and I look up great speeches,” like Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s speech at West Point.” And when things become “routine,” he says he goes down to the basement to watch “Saving Private Ryan.”
That’s not all that picks him up when he’s feeling blue. “I have to admit that I’m one of those people that thinks the dishwasher is a miracle,” he said. And because of that, “I like to load it.”
“I still take out the trash,” he added later. And he and his wife “go to football games. We go motor-homing.”
More Thomas:
On how the Court has changed him: “Not a whole lot. It’s changed my hair. It’s given me some girth.”
On his career: “This job — it’s easy for people who have never done it. What I’ve found is they know more about it than I do. Especially if they have the title of law professor.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the students had breakfast with Redskins great Darrell Green, who served as chair of President George W. Bush’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. The Wizards’ Antawn Jamison taped video and audio PSAs for the Institute while they were promoting the contest.
