# Bye-Bye, Bob Greene! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 15, 2002, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553 "2002-09-15T16:11:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lala\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a9adbd/32.png) [@Lala\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lala_S)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/1 "2002-09-15T16:11:51Z")
Yes, the folksy protector of children has resigned from the Tribune due to his admission that he had an “inappropriate” relationship with a teenage girl a few years ago. See the Tribune’s website for more details. Life’s ironies are so delicious sometimes… ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/2 "2002-09-15T16:21:36Z")
Whoa. I thought you meant that Oprah’s excercise guru kicked the bucket. :o ---
**Author:** ![jeevmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@jeevmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevmon)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/3 "2002-09-15T20:37:54Z")
I know I’ll always remember Bob Greene because he had the courage, conviction, and guts to take a principled and controversial stand strongly condemning child abuse, even though he knew that there was a very real risk that most of his readership would completely agree with him. It takes real bravery to stand up and write out of a dedication to your principles, especially when such principles are completely in line with popular opinion and unlikely to offend anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/4 "2002-09-15T20:48:23Z")
Being against child abuse also makes a nice cover in case you are in an inappropriate relationship with a young person. ---
**Author:** ![Lala\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a9adbd/32.png) [@Lala\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lala_S)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/5 "2002-09-15T21:09:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jeevmon \* > \*\*I know I’ll always remember Bob Greene because he had the courage, conviction, and guts to take a principled and controversial stand strongly condemning child abuse, even though he knew that there was a very real risk that most of his readership would completely agree with him. It takes real bravery to stand up and write out of a dedication to your principles, especially when such principles are completely in line with popular opinion and unlikely to offend anyone. \*\* LOL - brilliant! My personal memories of Bob will always have to do with his unique “Look- there’s a badger on my head!” hairstyle. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/6 "2002-09-15T21:18:18Z")
He is such a jerk. Sorry I can’t express myself in a more creative manner, but I’ve thought that for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/7 "2002-09-15T21:20:43Z")
If I say I’m against child abuse also, will I get some skank coming my way? ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/8 "2002-09-15T22:25:16Z")
“It often seems to me that what we all may be searching for are those elusive Chevrolet summers and Dairy Queen nights we once knew and that once, at least in memory, made us and our country feel fine and special and right.” Uh, Bob, that’s not supposed to mean getting into the back seat with a 16-year-old girl. I haven’t liked the man’s writings in years, especially for his syncopathic fawning for Michael Jordan, nor his book “Little Merry Sunshine” about his young daughter. He seemed to convey that boomer notion that something is important because it happened to him (Look! I have a daughter! Isn’t she cuuuuute?). About nine months from now, he’ll publish a sensitive and moving exploration of an over-the-hill writer confronting his mortality by canoodling with a hot little intern. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/9 "2002-09-16T00:51:17Z")
Does anyone know if he ever commented on Monicagate? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/10 "2002-09-20T03:29:52Z")
I am amazed he had a career after the most blantant example of plagiarism I ever saw: a column in _Spy Magazine_ where he gave Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck if” routine as his own work. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/11 "2002-09-20T05:14:19Z")
My gut reaction to BG was one of mild dislike – but I do NOT remember Spy publishing him – if memory serves, they tore him up once. Roy Blount (FWIW, first name: three letters; last name: six letters – like BG) once quoted in his Spy column the Jeff Foxworthy joke/algorithm. But I’m pretty sure he never claimed it as his own. And I’m REALLY sure he isn’t Bob Greene. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ftg \* > \*\*I am amazed he had a career after the most blantant example of plagiarism I ever saw: a column in _Spy Magazine_ where he gave Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck if” routine as his own work. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/12 "2002-09-20T12:24:14Z")
Hey, FU, is your screenname a take off on Pete Rose’s comments to Jim Bouton after Ball Four was published? ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/13 "2002-09-20T14:40:52Z")
Sorry for the hijack, but… For the rest of you, Jim Bouton was a pitcher for the Yankees who wrote ‘Ball Four’, the first tell-all sports memoir. (Before then, sports memoirs were total whitewashes, but Bouton revealed the feuds, the money squabbles, the cheating (both on the field and on their wives) and the fact that Mickey Mantle’s (and others’) favorite beverage was not milk). Breaking the code of silence made Bouton the most hated man in baseball, especially when he made a comeback a few years after publishing ‘Ball Four’. One day, he was on the mound warming up in Cincinatti, and Pete Rose expressed his opinion of Bouton’s writing efforts (“Fuck you, Shakespeare!”). I’m becoming more and more convinced that all human knowledge (no matter how obscure) is can be found in the brains of the SDMB forum members. Hijack over. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/14 "2002-09-20T14:47:11Z")
Except, apparently, proofreading! > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by F. U. Shakespeare \* > \*\* > I’m becoming more and more convinced that all human knowledge (no matter how obscure) is can be found in the brains of the SDMB forum members. > > Hijack over. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/15 "2002-09-20T15:07:42Z")
Back in 1994, _ **Might** _ magazine was launched by three friends from Chicago who had relocated to San Francisco. It went under after a couple of years, but while it was in operation it was wickedly irreverent (and very funny!) in its preoccupation of questioning the basic workings of our media-pickled culture. The magazine would have a fictional “table of contents” with articles like: _How My Lovely Daughter’s Smile Gives Me New Insight About the World’s Injustices_ by Anna Quindlen _Harrummph harrummph harrummph!_ by William Safire But the line that absolutely cracked me up was: _Same Old Shit_ by Bob Greene And mind you, that was **seven years ago!!** I can’t help thinking that somewhere, Mike Royko is having a good chuckle about all this! ---
**Author:** ![jeevmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@jeevmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevmon)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-bob-greene/128553/16 "2002-09-20T15:28:23Z")
The author of the late, great “BobWatch” feature has weighed in: [http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/09/19/greene/index.html](http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/09/19/greene/index.html) My favorite excerpt: Perhaps the most distinctive Bob characteristic was repetition. A columnist is supposed to provide a counterpoint to the steady drumbeat of the news. When the front page is chanting Iraq! Iraq! Iraq!, the columnist can cut across field, write something entirely different – hit some small curiosity one day, and the fate of the universe the next. Not Bob. He would latch onto a subject – particularly the tales of tortured children he gleamed from trailer park America – and worry them like a dog with a beefsteak. Four columns in a row were unexceptional for Bob. Eight columns. A heart-wrenching child custody case, the Baby Richard saga, prompted more than 100 columns from Bob, each day repeating large blocks of background, lines like “the only family he has ever known” burning into the memory of his readers as certainly as Homer’s “wine-dark sea” and “rosy-fingered dawn.”