Im sure he was cruising in your car, looking at the girl, stylin in your ride, instead of acting like a man and telling the truth, he made up some bs story, chances are good he was never at the restraunt either, fix the car, hand him the bill, I believe your friendship is over, now you know why you NEVER LEND ANYONE YOUR CAR unless you are prepared to take the consequences, and you were lucky this time, this could have been much worse (I read worse cases on yahoo answers weekly. Life happens, sometimes it sucks, a real friend would pay damages, no questions asked, a immature childish punk will try everything to get out of it, even blaming you for letting him borrow your car. Best of luck, your only saving grace is it could have been much worse.
Get him drunk and buddy buddy him find out the truth.
It doesn't matter whether he did it or not. The car was his responsibility while it was in his possession. If you have comprehensive insurance they will pay for repairs less your deductible.
Whether you have comprehensive or not you friend is legally obligated to pay you for anything you're out of pocket as a consequence, even a rental car if you need one. If he won't pay voluntarily you will need to sue him in court.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.