Tom Robbins (#1): Fundamentally Robbins.

Tom Robbins -- author of lusty books like Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Jitterbug Perfume, and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates -- sporting a "Jimmy Swaggart Bible College" sweatshirt.

He can make paragraphs sparkle like a girl's best friend.

Robbins also has a new book out. I recently interviewed him about B Is for Beer -- his "children's book about beer" -- for DRAFT magazine. Due to space limitations in its print edition, the magazine edited out one of the question-and-answers, which I'll kindly reprint here:

Q: I had fun drinking beer with you at the La Conner Brewing Company [La Conner, WA] in 2000, talking about your collection of freak show art. What are some of your fondest memories involving beer?

Robbins: In my bank of hoppy memories, nothing exceeds my recollection of motoring through Germany, stopping in small towns to test the brewing skills of local monks. At times I was tempted to burn my passport and don robe and sandals.

It wasn't my first dialogue with the hallucinogenic writer. Back in 2000, I interviewed Robbins for High Times magazine and wrote a sidebar about the revelatory and amusing experience.