For 25 years, Dave Barry wrote a syndicated newspaper column, tackling the tough subjects--dangers of flying squirrels, the threat of Canadians living so close to the U.S. and the horrors of low-flow toilets. (He wrote a lot about low-flow toilets.) For this he won a Pulitzer Prize. I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP.
He quit writing the columns a couple of years ago. Publicly, he said he needed a break from the pressures of turning out a regular column. But I think Barry realized that low-flow toilets are here to stay--and that depressing fact ate away at his will to write.
(He kept writing books--30 so far, according to his Web site, www.davebarry.com . And, in true Barry style, he writes on subjects--sex, money, aging, politics, history--whether or not he knows much about them. He's also in a band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, with a bunch of other writer-author types. I think it's safe to say his talents lie in writing.)
I was distraught when Barry quit newspapering. My local paper ran him on Mondays and I used his commentary to ready me for all the depressing stuff I'd find in the rest of the paper. Trust me, it's easier to read about war and pestilence when you've just learned about Barry's successful experiment to see if he could set fire to a pair of men's underpants using a Barbie doll. (His daughter was young at the time, but I'm not sure how much that explains...)
So, I was really excited to hear that he'd be the keynote speaker at ISPA EXPO 2008 in March. I think he'll have important insights on all sorts of subjects. But mostly, I want to see how he works toilets into a talk to the mattress industry.
- Julie A. Palm
An aside: Years ago I worked as a reporter at a small newspaper in Texas. One day, my colleague Steve, picked up the newsroom phone. ON the other end was a guy with a plumbing problem. It seems ballpoint pens (only ballpoint--not felt-tip pens, not pencils) were emerging in the swirl of the guy's toilet water.
Steve, bored with whatever story he was supposed to be writing at the time, headed out to the guy's house where he found what the guy described--ballpoint pens bubbling up. Steve wrote up the story, complete with quotes from the city utility workers saying they had no idea why it was happening. Steve was a thorough reporter.
About a month later, Dave Barry picked up Steve's story and worked it into his own column. Barry did this often, he felt it was important to share significant news events from around the country with his readers.
Steve won several awards from the Associated Press and others for his reporting. None of the rest of us gave a flip about those, but the day he made it into Barry's column--that was the day we knew Steve was really something.
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