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Author Taylor Branch's new book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, is based on 79 interviews conducted with President Clinton while the latter served in the White House. Team G:TB is generally more interested in fake sports wagering, Bert and Ernie's nascent rap career, and filler, but we couldn't help notice the following passage:

He also relayed how Boris Yeltsin's late-night drinking during a visit to Washington in 1995 nearly created an international incident. The Russian president was staying at Blair House, the government guest quarters. Late at night, Clinton told Branch, Secret Service agents found Yeltsin clad only in his underwear, standing alone on Pennsylvania Avenue and trying to hail a cab. He wanted a pizza, he told them, his words slurring.

The next night, Yeltsin eluded security forces again when he climbed down back stairs to the Blair House basement. A building guard took Yeltsin for a drunken intruder until Russian and U.S. agents arrived on the scene and rescued him.

Here's to you, Boris Yeltsin, real man of genius. If more world leaders had your panache, we'd spend a lot less time blowing each other up, and the world's munchie economy would bring prosperity to all.