April 12, 2013

"Death presents journalists with another dangerous temptation — the egomaniacal urge to link your life to the deceased’s..."

"... however tenuous the connection might be. It’s a way of siphoning off some of the ambient good will, but it was not true in my case. In my 'Roger and me' story, I don’t come off looking so hot, either."

12 comments:

LuAnn Zieman said...

On a morning when I am once again seeing snow falling, this was a gift of humor. Thanks.

Henry said...
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Henry said...

Well nuts. I always liked the bald guy better.

Icepick said...

A funny piece, but the formatting of the on-line version was terrible. That thing needed block quotes or italics or something to set off some of the quoted material.

"Are you the bald one or the fat one?"

Also, how pompous does this sound, even if it was true?

In the 1980s, I edited Tropic, the Miami Herald’s Sunday magazine. It was a swaggering, unapologetically subversive magazine, staffed by an eccentric group of people, including me, Tom Shroder, Dave Barry and Joel Achenbach, all of whom are familiar to Washington Post readers.

Icepick said...
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Bob R said...

Weingarten is a funny writer, but he's an asshole through and through. He has the "comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted" beat at WaPo. WaPo is, of course, a company paper in a company town, and Weingarten's job is to make the company hierarchy feel good about themselves by flattering them and insulting "the other." In a different era he would be working the Catskills telling jokes about mothers-in-law, spics, and spades.

Bob R said...

The jokes about mothers-in-law, spics, and spades would be funny though.

AllenS said...

LuAnn, it's snowing here too. Large flakes. We had about 2" this morning when I went for the walk out back. All of next week looks like it's going to be about the same as today. Bummer.

Patrick said...

Weingarten is a funny writer, but he's an asshole through and through. He has the "comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted" beat at WaPo.

I've no doubt of this, but he is capable of excellent, excellent writing. Two pieces I highly recommend are This and
This.

Neither of the pieces really went in the direction I initially expected. I think that accounts for much of what I like about it.

Cody Jarrett said...

Icepick, it's supposed to sound that way.

edutcher said...

If somebody wants to write a story that makes me feel good regarding death and "Roger and me", the subject better be Michael Moore.

Chip Ahoy said...

Note to self: improve skipping skills
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¶,
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¶ Ah, start here.