{"id":7327,"date":"2007-01-18T18:29:56","date_gmt":"2007-01-18T23:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/01\/18\/thanks-art-buchwald-you-taught-me-"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:52","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:52","slug":"thanks-art-buchwald-you-taught-me-a-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/01\/18\/thanks-art-buchwald-you-taught-me-a-lot\/","title":{"rendered":"thanks, art buchwald, you taught me a lot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Art Buchwald’s death today is a sad event.\u00a0(Detroit Free Press<\/em>\/AP, “Pulitzer-winning political, social satirist Art Buchwald dies<\/a>;” Washington Post<\/em>, Newspaper Columnist Art Buchwald Dies at 81<\/a>,” Jan. 18, 2007)\u00a0 But the best way to honor him is surely to celebrate and emulate his life, and (when the time comes) his wise and witty way of dying (for example, his auto-obituary video on the New York Times <\/em>website, “Hi, I’m Art Buchwald and I Just Died<\/a>“; hat tip to Blawg Review<\/a><\/em>‘s unnamed Editor)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Too Soon to Say Goodbye<\/em><\/a> (Random House<\/a>, Nov. 2006)\u00a0 \"BuchwaldTooSoon\"<\/p>\n

I’ve been an Art Buchwald fan for perhaps 45 years — as long as I’ve been observing the political life of our nation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Indeed, Buchwald is probably more responsible than any pundit or newsman for my interest in the workings of our political system and the foibles of our leaders.\u00a0 Few habits survived from my days as a newspaper carrier, through high school, college and law school, and into\u00a0my working life.\u00a0 But reading Art Buchwald’s columns was\u00a0a steady ritual on those lucky two days a week when his newspaper\u00a0pieces appeared.<\/p>\n

\"ArtBuchwald\"\u00a0As the Washington Post<\/em> article today aptly put it, the “owlish, cigar-chomping extrovert zinged the high, mighty and humor-challenged.”\u00a0\u00a0 Edward Kennedy called him “the Mark Twain of our time.”\u00a0\u00a0I’ve always appreciated Twain a lot, but Buchwald\u00a0has always been\u00a0more relevant for me, because he wrote about the issues of our time, as they happened.\u00a0\u00a0Besides\u00a0making me smile, Art Buchwald\u00a0taught me many lessons, as I grew up in the 1960’s and ’70’s, and tried to\u00a0keep growing\/maturing into the ’80’s and ’90’s.\u00a0 Here are a few of the most important:<\/p>\n

—<\/strong> that humor can contain much insight and wisdom, helping to clarify issues that might otherwise be avoided as too complicated, boring, or taboo — and making politics, political science, and citizen involvement enjoyable<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

—<\/strong> that there is no person or institution in a democracy that should be spared a probing spotlight,\u00a0as too\u00a0sacrosanct or powerful\u00a0<\/p>\n

—<\/strong> that there is no shame, and much for others to gain,\u00a0from talking publically about the travails of your own life (for Buchwald, a very sad childhood and adult battles with depression)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I go,\u00a0I hope it is with Buchwald’s grace and at least a bit of his humor.\u00a0 He recently said, “I have no idea where I’m going but here’s the real question: What am I doing here in the first place?<\/em>”\u00a0 It would also be\u00a0great to have a friend who feels like former\u00a0Washington Post<\/em> editor Ben Bradlee does about Art Buchwald: “He was just a glorious friend to have.”\u00a0 Bradlee said he had spoken to Buchwald every day for the past month, adding “He was comforting and funny and very thoughtful.” \u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are a few of my favorite Art Buchwald quotes (which, with many more,\u00a0can be found\u00a0at\u00a0ThinkExist.com<\/a>):<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe best things in life aren’t things\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \"laughingManS\"\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Tax reform is taking the taxes off things that have been taxed in the past and putting taxes on things that haven’t been taxed before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are broad-minded. They’ll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn’t drive, there’s something wrong with him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI always wanted to get into politics, but I was never light enough to make the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NoYabutsSN\"\u00a0\u00a0Among haiku\/senryu writers, George Swede<\/strong><\/a> is well known\u00a0for using humor in the service of insight into the human condition.\u00a0 George is, thankfully, still robust and\u00a0productive (although recently retired from his psychology professor duties, and despite his dispiriting battle with a plagiarist<\/a>).\u00a0 He is the featured poet in the senryu<\/a> section of the current edition of Simply Haiku<\/a><\/em> journal.\u00a0 The introduction to George’s poems in Simply Haiku<\/em> quotes Cor van den Heuvel<\/a> saying “I’m sure his senryu would be the envy of great comedy writers like Woody Allen or Mel Brooks if they were aware of them.”\u00a0 Well, I’m sure Art Buchwald would also have been in that group of admirers — and loved sharing a Mexican meal with George, too.\u00a0 Here are a selection of George Swede’s senryu, from Simply Haiku<\/em> Winter 2006<\/a> (vol 4 no 4):<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thick fog lifts \u2014
\nunfortunately, I am where
\nI thought I was<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the edge of the precipice\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I become logical\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

peering into\u00a0\u00a0 \"devilF\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\nthe deep well, two boys
\ntalk about girls<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A sigh from her
\nthen one from me \u2014
\ntwo pages turn<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

in her large blue eyes I make a small impression\u00a0 \"laughingManS\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

airport lounge
\na Muslim man prays toward
\nthe emergency exit<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

. . . by george swede<\/strong><\/font><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

———————————<\/p>\n

\u00a0Credits:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Thick fog lifts” and “A sigh from her” from Frogpond<\/em> XX\/2
\n“At the edge” from A Snowman, Headless, Fiddlehead
\n<\/em>“peering into” from The Heron\u00b9s Nest<\/em>
\n<\/em>“in her large blue eyes” from Uguisu<\/em>
\n“airport lounge” from Modern Haiku<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Art Buchwald’s death today is a sad event.\u00a0(Detroit Free Press\/AP, “Pulitzer-winning political, social satirist Art Buchwald dies;” Washington Post, Newspaper Columnist Art Buchwald Dies at 81,” Jan. 18, 2007)\u00a0 But the best way to honor him is surely to celebrate and emulate his life, and (when the time comes) his wise and witty way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[555,900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-viewpoint"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1Ub","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12597,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327\/revisions\/12597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}