Charlie Rose had a show on the anniversary of Hitchens's birthday yesterday which included Salman Rushdie, James Fenton, Ian McEwan and Martin Amis.

They captured how generous and democratic he was socially with impeccable manners and had one of the best senses of humor around. He was also very tough and "honorable." Rushdie who is very funny, describes himself crying he was laughing so hard with Hitchens one night and McEwan said he'd get stomach cramps from all the laughter. Amis had some great anecdotes also. And Fenton was right to describe him as the spirit of '68.

Rushdie's memoir will drop Sept. 17. It's called Joseph Anton after the name he took when in hiding from Iran's supreme leader's fatwa. He derived it from the first names of two of his favorite authors, Conrad and Chekov.

HBO picked up Game of Thrones for a third season.