National Review‘s resident atheist John Derbyshire has been an entertaining sparring partner for us and I always looked forward to his attacks on intelligent design, which have been frustratingly sparse recently. He knows how to disagree enjoyably. Now a friend sends along an article that John D. has written describing, in very good humor, his current experience with cancer and chemotherapy. Dear John, please do get all better soon.

I looked for a reference to the subjects we cover here at ENV and thought I would go away disappointed until, in the context of unexpected side-effects of chemo, I clicked on his reference to the Duke of Marlborough Effect, which turns out to be an amusing Richard Dawkins-ism.

I supposed I’d emerge from the place feeling awful. But one of those IV bags had some kind of steroid in it; I forget why. The effect was that I emerged looking for a fight. I ran the twenty miles home down the expressway, pushing aside cars and trucks that tried to pass me. Arrived home, I punched my way through the house wall, and there would have been a Duke of Marlborough moment, but…

You’ll need to look that one up for yourself.