Being a dame is synonymous wit confidence, actually possessing it or behaving as though you did. Of course, it helps to have the goods to back up that confidence, and maybe that’s what helped Hunter S. Thompson write this ballsy cover letter. Anyway, I’d love to have such balls (and talent).

Applying for a job at a Canadian newspaper, here’s an excerpt from his letter:

“By the time you get this letter, I’ll have gotten hold of some of the recent issues of The Sun. Unless it looks totally worthless, I’ll let my offer stand. And don’t think that my arrogance is unintentional: it’s just that I’d rather offend you now than after I started working for you.

I didn’t make myself clear to the last man I worked for until after I took the job. It was as if the Marquis de Sade had suddenly found himself working for Billy Graham. The man despised me, of course, and I had nothing but contempt for him and everything he stood for. If you asked him, he’d tell you that I’m “not very likable, (that I) hate people, (that I) just want to be left alone, and (that I) feel too superior to mingle with the average person.” (That’s a direct quote from a memo he sent to the publisher.)

Nothing beats having good references.

Of course if you asked some of the other people I’ve worked for, you’d get a different set of answers.”

Guts, confidence and humor — I hereby decree Mr. Thompson an honorary dame.

Read the whole letter here.