Best Columnist Ever...

Century ago dept.: Ring Lardner. (And props to whoever remembered Finley Peter Dunne.)

 

Wow that was a really good column. I had never read anything serious by Barry before. Thanks for sharing the link.

 

Agreed on the Barry column; I didn't know how his mom died, so the payoff was a stunner. Also surprising: he misspells "calendar" as "calender" in the second paragraph. Not something you see every day from a writer like that, even on first drafts.

 

Winchell
Heywood Broun

Walter Lippmann

Pete Hamill
Murray Kempton

Jim Murray
Wells Twombly

And, if you grew up or lived in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 50s-70s, with probably the greatest collection of columnists anywhere but NYC:

Herb Caen
Art Hoppe
Charles McCabe
Prescott Sullivan

 

jaredk: No offense taken. The Original was strong, before he got old and tired . . .

 

Don't know if I'd put Molly Ivins at No. 1, but absolutely in my all-time top five.

Sound: authentic, singular.

Wit: first-rate.

Fearlessness: right up there with anyone.

Tolerance for learning about the minutiae of public policy: peerless. (She once waxed on about a Massachusetts gubernatorial-election debate between Bill Weld and John Kerry and clearly, she'd sat in Texas and watched the whole thing with vigor.)

Now, an added boost in the wake of her death: reminders from other columnists of what she wrote in 2002 during the run-up to the Iraq catastrophe. (Almost alone, she predicted precisely what has happened, and through a novel approach: She'd actually studied the country we prepared to invade.)

 

I grew up in Miami in the 70's, and so read Barry and Hiaasen when they started out, more or less. In the early days, Barry was hilarious. Better than his weekly columns (which ran out of inspiration about 7 or 8 years into the process) were his occasional longer stories for the Sunday Tropic magazine (RIP) in the Herald. His story of hanging out with the Dolphins ("Thighs and Whispers") was great, as was his pro wrestling story (ah, the days of the old Miami Beach Convention Center) and his whole campaign to get baseball and basketball teams in Miami.

Hiaasen to me is the gold standard of the investigative columnist. Setting up shop in Miami for a reporter looking for corruption is like looking for hay in a haystack, and Hiaasen wasted no time in going after corrupt politicians, developers, etc. He's inspiring to me, and not a half-bad novelist, either.

Here's another name for you: James Thurber. Funniest man of the first half of the 20th century.

 

Old School: Cannon. Red. Pope. Bisher. Murray. Sherrod. Lardner (John). And, Jenkins (Dan) if he'd ever written a column.

(In between these: Kindred)

Medium School: Reilly, Lupica, Jenkins (Sally), Plaschke, Whitley.

New School: Jemelle Hill.

 

Buddy, I am old enough to remember you writing The Nose and Pike's Peek (or Peak?), and as I was young at the time, I liked them, although now I am not nearly as fond of schtick. So I think I understand why you like Hill, but can you elaborate and explain why? Further, is this really "new school" or just what you and others already did, warmed over with but with more liberty for riske references than you were allowed 20-25 years ago? Because I don't see it. Tell me, what I am missing that is "new school" about her stuff?

I should add that I don't mean to say that Hill's work is without merit, but to me "new school" means it is different from "old school," and except for updated slang, I don't think it is.

 

Whenever we're having these debates, I'm reminded of one thing that we tend to forget when things get more personal.

Dave Barry makes me laugh more than probably anybody I read. I'm a fan. Others here, who I respect, can't stand him.

The polarization here over T.J. Simers is constant. Me: Like him.

Some people were Murray people, some Smith (while totally respecting both). To me, it was more about who I tried to write like when I was young: Smith. No way I could attempt to channel the Murray style.

Royko was a hero of mine; to some, he was overrated.

Off-key example: I hate Sean Hannity's politics; I also listen to him on the way from work to the bar every night. To me, the way he does things is entertaining, aside from the message.

Some people like schtick. Others don't.

Meaning: Everybody has different tastes. Unlike some here, I DO think if there's a buzz around somebody, they're probably doing something right with regard to what columnists should do: Entertain, provoke, interest.

 

American Idol has buzz around it, so you're wrong [/every weak argument used to discredit anything popular].