Those of us who live in Washington DC area and get the Post and like
me, read Weingarten regularly, appreciate his humor. Whether a stunt
or not, Weingarten is a humor writer. One of the best. I don't think
he was trying to prove any great scientific theorem with the Josh Bell
caper, he was reminding us of our human nature, of our ability to tune
out things when we are preoccupied with doing something else, in this
case getting to work. Even though I am a violinist, capable of playing
the Chaconne (if not at Bell's level), I too have bypassed street
musician playing classical things if I was Hell-bent on being
somewhere else. Yes, I probably would have recognized Bell had I been
there that day, but despite my pretty good knowledge of violin
soloists, might have bypassed someone of solo calibre, but lesser
known, if I had a train to catch.

Gene writes (mostly) to entertain. His weekly column on the last page
of the Washington Post Magazine is intended to be funny, to make light
of his and our foibles. He does occasionally write some extended
pieces of which the Bell story was one. He has also writen some deadly
serious extended pieces for the magazine, and though I can't remember
the subject of the one I am trying to think of, from a couple of years
ago, I remember being very moved by it at the time.

On Jul 4, 9:39 am, Jon Teske <jdte... at (no spam) comcast.net> wrote:





Those of us who live in Washington DC area and get the Post and like
me, read Weingarten regularly, appreciate his humor. Whether a stunt
or not, Weingarten is a humor writer. One of the best. I don't think
he was trying to prove any great scientific theorem with the Josh Bell
caper, he was reminding us of our human nature, of our ability to tune
out things when we are preoccupied with doing something else, in this
case getting to work. Even though I am a violinist, capable of playing
the Chaconne (if not at Bell's level), I too have bypassed street
musician playing classical things if I was Hell-bent on being
somewhere else. Yes, I probably would have recognized Bell had I been
there that day, but despite my pretty good knowledge of violin
soloists, might have bypassed someone of solo calibre, but lesser
known,  if I had a train to catch.

Gene writes (mostly) to entertain. His weekly column on the last page
of the Washington Post Magazine is intended to be funny, to make light
of his and our foibles.  He does occasionally write some extended
pieces of which the Bell story was one. He has also writen some deadly
serious extended pieces for the magazine, and though I can't remember
the subject of the one I am trying to think of, from a couple of years
ago, I remember being very moved by it at the time.

Agreed.  Several years ago, GW wrote a fascinating article in the Post
about the sad, strange life of the man who wrote the Hardy Boys (and
some of the Nancy Drew?) mysteries, which sticks in my mind.  I hope
he returns again to the lengthier "serious" pieces.

Jon Teske <jdteske at (no spam) comcast.net> appears to have caused the following
letters to be typed in news:5lcs64181g21ekub4lm2i6gfb4691vorjb at (no spam) 4ax.com:

Just before the Jun 29 story, maybe a week or three before, Weingarten
wrote a piece in his regular column about prank phone calls and commercial
phone calls about winning prizes, like "a free vacation to our resort."
[Which are always time share pitches]. At the end of the article someone
calls him up to say he just won the Pulitzer Prize, and Gene thinks it is a
prank being pulled on him.

No; it was a prank being pulled on the profession of journalism.

On Jul 4, 2:23 pm, pgaron <pga... at (no spam) my-deja.com> wrote:

On Jul 4, 9:39 am, Jon Teske <jdte... at (no spam) comcast.net> wrote:

Those of us who live in Washington DC area and get the Post and like
me, read Weingarten regularly, appreciate his humor. Whether a stunt
or not, Weingarten is a humor writer. One of the best. I don't think
he was trying to prove any great scientific theorem with the Josh Bell
caper, he was reminding us of our human nature, of our ability to tune
out things when we are preoccupied with doing something else, in this
case getting to work. Even though I am a violinist, capable of playing
the Chaconne (if not at Bell's level), I too have bypassed street
musician playing classical things if I was Hell-bent on being
somewhere else. Yes, I probably would have recognized Bell had I been
there that day, but despite my pretty good knowledge of violin
soloists, might have bypassed someone of solo calibre, but lesser
known, if I had a train to catch.

Gene writes (mostly) to entertain. His weekly column on the last page
of the Washington Post Magazine is intended to be funny, to make light
of his and our foibles. He does occasionally write some extended
pieces of which the Bell story was one. He has also writen some deadly
serious extended pieces for the magazine, and though I can't remember
the subject of the one I am trying to think of, from a couple of years
ago, I remember being very moved by it at the time.

Agreed. Several years ago, GW wrote a fascinating article in the Post
about the sad, strange life of the man who wrote the Hardy Boys (and
some of the Nancy Drew?) mysteries, which sticks in my mind. I hope
he returns again to the lengthier "serious" pieces.

If he did, then he was "pranking" you again -- there was no one author
for the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, etc.; someone came up with a plot
outline, and the actual composition of the stories was handled by a
stable of penny-a-word freelancers. And the books were regularly
revised over the decades -- initially to "update police methods," but
also to excise racism and other no longer appropriate attitudes, and
to modernize the slang, the car terminology, etc. (When I started
reading the Hardy Boys in 1959, I had no idea what a "roadster" was --
still don't --, and I rather doubt that that word appears in current
printings of the early books in the series.)

On Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:15:41 -0500, "Matthew B. Tepper"
oyþ at (no spam) earthlink.net> wrote:

Jon Teske <jdteske at (no spam) comcast.net> appears to have caused the following
letters to be typed in news:5lcs64181g21ekub4lm2i6gfb4691vorjb at (no spam) 4ax.com:

Just before the Jun 29 story, maybe a week or three before, Weingarten
wrote a piece in his regular column about prank phone calls and
commercial phone calls about winning prizes, like "a free vacation to
our resort." [Which are always time share pitches]. At the end of the
article someone calls him up to say he just won the Pulitzer Prize,
and Gene thinks it is a prank being pulled on him.

No; it was a prank being pulled on the profession of journalism.

Matthew, in reading your comments I am often reminded of a writing by a
famous editor of the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee, he of Watergate fame.

This story, later recounted in Washingtonian Magazine goes as follows.

A journalist on the Post's staff in the 70's made application to
Bradlee to be the Post's Bureau Chief in Los Angeles.

The journalist had a "prickly" reputation.

Bradlee wrote to the Journalist:

Dear.......

I have read your application to be our Bureau Chief in LA.

You are a talented journalist.

You are also a pain in the ass.

I will have a talented journalist heading up LA, he will not be a pain
in the ass.

I found a copy of Weingarten's 1998 Wash. Post article on the author
of *many* of the Hardy Boys books:

   http://tinyurl.com/a4qjq

I think it's a legitimate article, and not "pranking."  See what you
think.

pgaron

On Jul 4, 5:11 pm, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma... at (no spam) verizon.net> wrote:





On Jul 4, 2:23 pm, pgaron <pga... at (no spam) my-deja.com> wrote:

On Jul 4, 9:39 am, Jon Teske <jdte... at (no spam) comcast.net> wrote:

Those of us who live in Washington DC area and get the Post and like
me, read Weingarten regularly, appreciate his humor. Whether a stunt
or not, Weingarten is a humor writer. One of the best. I don't think
he was trying to prove any great scientific theorem with the Josh Bell
caper, he was reminding us of our human nature, of our ability to tune
out things when we are preoccupied with doing something else, in this
case getting to work. Even though I am a violinist, capable of playing
the Chaconne (if not at Bell's level), I too have bypassed street
musician playing classical things if I was Hell-bent on being
somewhere else. Yes, I probably would have recognized Bell had I been
there that day, but despite my pretty good knowledge of violin
soloists, might have bypassed someone of solo calibre, but lesser
known,  if I had a train to catch.

Gene writes (mostly) to entertain. His weekly column on the last page
of the Washington Post Magazine is intended to be funny, to make light
of his and our foibles.  He does occasionally write some extended
pieces of which the Bell story was one. He has also writen some deadly
serious extended pieces for the magazine, and though I can't remember
the subject of the one I am trying to think of, from a couple of years
ago, I remember being very moved by it at the time.

Agreed.  Several years ago, GW wrote a fascinating article in the Post
about the sad, strange life of the man who wrote the Hardy Boys (and
some of the Nancy Drew?) mysteries, which sticks in my mind.  I hope
he returns again to the lengthier "serious" pieces.

If he did, then he was "pranking" you again -- there was no one author
for the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, etc.; someone came up with a plot
outline, and the actual composition of the stories was handled by a
stable of penny-a-word freelancers. And the books were regularly
revised over the decades -- initially to "update police methods," but
also to excise racism and other no longer appropriate attitudes, and
to modernize the slang, the car terminology, etc. (When I started
reading the Hardy Boys in 1959, I had no idea what a "roadster" was --
still don't --, and I rather doubt that that word appears in current
printings of the early books in the series.)

I found a copy of Weingarten's 1998 article on the author of *many* of
the Hardy Boys books.

http://tinyurl.com/a4qjq

I think it's a legitimate article, and not "pranking."  See what you
think.