Yep been there. Took a massive rock climbing fall the day before, then had beets with diner. Went pee the next morning and was very concerned I had a kidney bleed. Luckily I remembered about the beets before I finished dressing and scheduling a Dr. Apt.

Yeah, he should have just used his mouth.

I too found parts of it very tedious. Some of his writing, particularly descriptions of the sights, sounds and even smells of the desert and war are some of the best ever written. But his mixes in entire chapters of political discussions and observations about the interactions between different tribes and colonial powers that are almost impossible for a causal reader to choke down.

Bullshit. Everyone hates 'tokens', it's painfully obvious when a person didn't get hired based on merit- this makes co-workers dislike them because they're stuck working with an incompetent person, it makes underlings hate them because they know they're more qualified and most importantly it makes qualified people from that privileged group hate them because it damages their group images by being associated with incompetence.