I guess you have to be one of my older readers for Art Buchwald's satirical columns have been a formative part of your youthful reading. For many years, he was the the foremost political humorist, cranking out column after column, with rare consistency of quality. It's true that toward the end they didn't seem as funny but maybe that wasn't Buchwald's fault. To parphrase Norma Desmond, "It wasn't humor that got less funny, it was reality that got funnier."
Buchwald died the other day, by all accounts at peace with himself and the world, no regrets at having stopped his dialysis treatments almost a year ago (the docs had told him he'd be dead within weeks of doing this).
A journalist stopped by Buchwald's hospice for an interview and finished with this question:
“Art, any pearls of wisdom for all the columnists who love you?”
“Keep writing. Tell them to just keep writing,” he said.
Funny how the wisest things always sound so simple. As Buchwald knew (even though he received tons of awards), it's not the awards that make people writers; it's not even how many readers they have (although in his prime he had millions).
It's just that they write. And keep writing.
