Continuing a series of interviews with Evan’s friends (see this & this), I spoke this afternoon with Warren Braunig, who has known Evan for 20 years.
Wired: How well do you know Evan?
Warren Braunig I know him very well. I’ve known him since we were 15. We met at debate camp and we were roommates in San Francisco in the late 90s. He’s been one of my closest friends ever since.
__Wired:__I didn’t know he was a debater.
WB: Yes. He was very good. He and his partner won the big tournament at Emory University. The two of them were one of the ten best teams in the country. He'll be mad that I didn't say "top five."
Wired: What was your first impression of him?
WB: What I really remember is getting to know him in our 20s. He had this combination of being very laid back and being very focused. He walked his way into Wired as an intern, knowing that he wanted to end up as a feature writer. And he did what he needed to do to get himself to that place. I've had a lot of friends over the years who wanted to be journalists but couldn't put all the pieces together. Evan did.
Wired: What does he like to do with his free time?
WB: As I think people have latched onto, he loves the beach and he loves ultimate Frisbee. He loves to eat Chick-fil-A. He likes to watch soccer. He likes to drink and have a good time. He’s a great guy to hang out with. He’s very open to trying new things and going on adventures. He’s fearless.
Wired: If you didn’t know him, how would you identify him from a distance?
WB: Well, there’s that shoulder tick he has when he talks that you can see in the Venice Beach interview. Though what made it easy for me to identify him in that interview was the sound of his voice.
Wired: Why does he like the Fulham soccer team? I had never heard of them before this contest.
WB: He got into them because Fulham has recently had a lot of US players. A lot of young guys on the US national team have played for fulham. He is a big fan of the US national soccer team.
Wired: Do you think he’ll be at the US ¬ El Salvador game in Salt Lake City in a couple of days?
WB: I think it’s quite possible. But he must know that people out there know it’s something he would be thinking about.
Wired: Why does he like soccer?
WB: I think he likes the constant action. The thing that he finds funniest in all of sports is, in American football, when the whole game stops and the referee brings out the sticks to measure whether there has been a first down. But it all depends on where the referee arbitrarily spotted the ball. He thinks that is ridiculous. He hates that. He hates instant replay. He likes soccer because it's so fluid and there's so much going on at once.
Wired: What can you tell us that will help people find him?
WB: He loves his coffee and his paper copy of the New York Times. That’s his morning. I know that he was concerned before departing that he'd be able to get a good cup and access to his paper.
And he’s not a guy who’s had a beard traditionally. He grew the beard and the hair to play with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if he now looked completely different from what he looked like on Venice Beach.
Wired: Do you think he shaved his head?
WB: If he did, it took a real fear that people were onto him. He has great hair. He really wouldn’t want to.
Wired: What kind of coffee shop would he go into?
WB: You’re not going to find him in a Starbucks. He’s going to be in the good locally owned coffee place. And he doesn’t have a particular type of coffee that he likes. He doesn’t drink espresso. He likes the local place where he can plug in his laptop and sit for a few hours.
Wired: What time would he get there in the morning?
WB: Between 8:30-9:30am. I think it is interesting that people have pegged him as a nocturnal person. I don’t think of him that way. Though when he has big deadlines he stays up until 4am to finish them. He’s a bit of perfectionist.
Wired: Have you been in touch with him?
WB: I have not.
Wired: What does Evan do when angry? What about when stressed?
WB: Evan gets angry very infrequently. I have seen him throw deck furniture once or twice. But I've also seen him throw furniture once or twice when he was drunk and having fun. When he's stressed, he’s going to go running. And he’s not going to run on the beach in the sand, because of his knees. He’ll go on a wooded path or a promenade. He likes to run hills because you get more bang for the buck. You don’t have to run as long to work up a sweat.
Wired: Where do you think he is?
WB: I wasn’t surprised that he turned up on the beach. But he also likes the mountains and fishing and camping and that kind of stuff. When he goes on vacation, he usually goes to Hawaii or Florida, places like that.
Wired: Anything else that we should know?
WB: He’s taunting us. And, if he's not careful, that’s what going to get him caught. It is a game, and he wants to let people get close but still not find him. That’s his goal.
