"We have to pray for your brother. He's in real trouble."

Said Clarence Thomas to President Bush's sister. (Quick: Did you know the President had a sister? Do you know her name?)

More from the same Lloyd Grove column:

Later I had a nice chat with the conservative justice — who's had little use for journalists since his 1991 confirmation hearings, in which Anita Hill accused him of inappropriate sexual advances and Thomas accused the Senate Judiciary Committee of conducting "a high-tech lynching."

"Life is long," I said at one point.

"That's right," Thomas agreed. "That's what you should say when somebody does something to you: Life is lo-o-ong. Ha-ha."

Sounds like Thomas is still trying to get over that unpleasant piece of business from long ago.

Who knows what Thomas was thinking when he said that? And there are so many ways to vocalize "ha-ha." Well, Grove knows the context and heard the intonation, and he's saying Thomas is still pissed. Wouldn't you be?