for posterity

Obama's joke last night about his familiarity with the Village bars is also somewhat at odds with the book's portrayal of his New York stint. He describes himself as having lived a fairly strait-laced existence for a college student in New York, so much so that it irked his friend and roommate, Sadik. "I stopped getting high. I ran three miles a day and fasted on Sundays," Obama writes. "For the first time in years, I applied myself to my studies and started keeping a journal of daily reflections and very bad poetry. Whenever Sadik tried to talk me into hitting a bar, I'd beg off with some tepid excuse, too much work or not enough cash. One day, before leaving the apartment in search of better company, he turned to me and offered his most scathing indictment. 'You're becoming a bore.'"

Obama concludes: "Uncertain of my ability to steer a course of moderation, fearful of falling into old habits, I took on the temperament if not the convictions of a street corner preacher, prepared to see temptation everywhere, ready to overrun a fragile will."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2007/09/obama-in-nyc-party-boy-or-no.html