Lewis Grizzard

[Vombatus]

Did anyone here know him?

This is one of my favorite jokes:

 

[Driftwood]

Know him? No.
Know his work? Completely.
In fact, reading his book about his career as a sports writer got me into the business.

 

[playthrough]

He was the greatest. I grew up in Atlanta with him in the AJC (damn, what an incredible sports section) and had a lot of his books. I'm the same age now as he was when he died, which feels strange.

 

[John]

I bet I read his collection Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You a dozen times. I'm not sure how it would hold up in 2021 but I have very fond memories of reading his work.

 

[DanOregon]

Grizzard, Dave Barry, Erma Bombeck - and many papers employed local "humor" columnists. Not sure what the closest comp is now - David Sedaris? Who is the funniest writer working today? Tweets don't count.

 

[da man]

I bet I read his collection Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You a dozen times. I'm not sure how it would hold up in 2021 but I have very fond memories of reading his work.

My favorite LG book titles are “They Tore Out My Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat” and “Elvis Is Dead and I Don’t Feel So Good Myself”.

 

[dixiehack]

From the snippets I remember, there are large sections of his work that simply would not float today. But by the standards of a guy born in the Deep South at the very start of the baby boom, he probably moved the ball a good bit down the field from where his forebears left it.

 

[jackfinarelli]

Grizzard, Dave Barry, Erma Bombeck - and many papers employed local "humor" columnists. Not sure what the closest comp is now - David Sedaris? Who is the funniest writer working today? Tweets don't count.

Gene Weingarten in the Washington Post?

 

[Neutral Corner]

"Next time I find myself tempted to get married I'm just going to find a woman I don't like and buy her a house."

 

[User 11148]

I knew of his work, of course, but met him only once ... he was in a foursome with me at one of those media scrambles that were standard fare back in my day. He drank a quart of gin over about 16 holes. Totally not a charming golfmate ...

 

[tapintoamerica]

I knew of his work, of course, but met him only once ... he was in a foursome with me at one of those media scrambles that were standard fare back in my day. He drank a quart of gin over about 16 holes. Totally not a charming golfmate ...

You had me convinced at “gin.” Uggh.

 

[swingline]

CAYDD

 

[Starman]

Grizzard, Dave Barry, Erma Bombeck - and many papers employed local "humor" columnists. Not sure what the closest comp is now - David Sedaris? Who is the funniest writer working today? Tweets don't count.

I'd say until the mid-Nineties or so, virtually all major metros and most mid-size papers had one or more humor/ soft features /human interest columnists, and even down to dinky dailies and weeklies, somebody usually tried to do it.
(The big time big-league papers often had several.)
People with a personal style that meshed with that concept could build up pretty solid local followings. Grizzard had a hell of a run with his version.