(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . How It’s Done [1] ['Chauncey Devega', 'Black Kos', 'Belinda Ridgewood'] Date: 2026-09-29 Fifty years ago, I was going to Ohio University, a notorious party school with an excellent journalism department, which was why I was there. I was trying to write. My roommate, that quarter, was trying to not be sober. She was remarkably successful. If she wasn’t drunk, she was high. She didn’t use narcotics. She used hallucinogens only occasionally, as they were expensive. She smoked a lot of dope, a problem for me, as I was trying to write while she was lighting up, and I prefer to have my wits about me when I’m doing that. She drank. She was over 21, so she could buy all the alcohol she could afford. Her younger friends, all graduates of the Evangelical Christian group Young Life, would chip in. She would buy the booze and they would share it. Living with her was interesting. One night she got wasted and ordered a large pizza with everything. I was the one who paid for it, as she was dead to the world, when it arrived. She ate most of it for breakfast the next morning. Every now and again, against my better judgement, I would hit the bars with her. I am not a drinker. I have the alcoholic capacity of an anemic rabbit. But I did enjoy dancing at the clubs, back when my legs still worked. But I wasn’t going to a bar by myself. That night, as usual, my roomie was drunk. She met a guy at one of the bars and left with him. I went back to the dorm, by way of Louie’s Bagel Buggy. (O.U. alums will remember Louie.) I was sitting in the lounge, when my roomie came in with her new friend. I was wondering where I would sleep, a few minutes later, when the guy walked through the lounge, looking like he’d just bitten into a piece of rotten fruit. I went up to our room, and there was my roomie, stretched out on the bed, looking like a study for Nude In A Dorm. She’d undressed, lain down on the bed and passed out. Her new friend, apparently, preferred his women conscious and left. Every time I hear about some girl being raped, when she was unconscious, I think of my roomie, and her would be partner, who could have done what he liked with her. But decided to leave, rather than take advantage of the situation. At least one young man decided not to have sex with an unconscious woman. I never saw the guy again. My roomie moved out, after twelve weeks. I did not miss her. She flunked out of Ohio University after two quarters. That was a real accomplishment. I have a BS degree in journalism. I also write fiction, but, sometimes I can’t make up anything as good as what I’ve encountered. That was one of those times. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/9/29/800105378/community/how-its-done/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/