Posted by Jason Diamond

Our friend Maris Kreizman of the fantastic Tumblr, Slaughterhouse 90210, saw our most recent WWGPD and replied to us on Twitter with this:

@vol1brooklyn This reminds me of the time Plimpton looked down my shirt at a Radcliffe Publishing Course party! My brush w the great man.

So of course we had to know the story.

This column is called “What Would George Plimpton Do?” and I guess the answer is “stare down your shirt.”  Is that accurate?

Yes, indeed.

So in as few words as possible, can you tell me about the time about George Plimpton stared at your breasts?

It was the summer of 2000, and I was a bright-eyed recent grad of the Radcliffe Publishing Course (now the Columbia Publishing Course), and I was at a reception for course alumni at a gorgeous townhouse on the Upper East Side. The very first swanky publishing party I had ever attended. I was drinking wine that didn’t come from a box and was feeling very optimistic about my future prospects. And then there he was. I bravely approached Mr. Plimpton to introduce myself, and he shook my hand and said he was delighted to meet me. And then there was this long protracted moment when he seemed to be almost hovering over my chest, giving my boobs a long, healthy look.

How did you feel about that?

Look, I had just finished this course in book publishing, and here I was mingling with a New York literary legend. My dreams were coming true. It was exciting. Degrading too, of course, but also very exciting. Just like the publishing industry!

While it was going on, did you think to ask “hey, since your grabbing a peek, maybe tell me what it was like to beat up Sirhan Sirhan after he shot RFK or maybe get me a free lifetime subscription to The Paris Review?”

I really did want an internship. But for that he would’ve had to be interested in seeing my big…brains. Which he wasn’t.

Did you know that Plimpton was a fireworks aficionado?  That has no real bearing on this conversation, I just wanted to know if you knew that.

I had no idea. But this makes sense. Now every time I hear the Katy Perry song “Firework” I will think of him.

George Plimpton lived a good life, wrote a lot of fascinating stuff; got to have a guest spot in Good Will Hunting. Is the time he looked down your shirt your favorite George Plimpton moment?

It’s the one I’ll cherish most of all.