I searched but didn’t see another thread on this:
Honestly I haven’t read him regularly in a few years, but I used to without fail. I can’t think of another writer who’s made me do that cackling, gut-holding laugh as many times as he has.
The article says he may come back; I hope he does, and I hope he enjoys whatever he does in the meantime.
My newspaper said he was taking a yearlong sabbatical (during which time the newspaper would rerun old columns). I haven’t read what you tried to link to; it wants me to register.
His columns have been getting a little repetitive/predictable lately. If he comes back refreshed, or if he writes more novels, I’d consider the time off a Good Thing.
This is kinda old news, isn’t it?
Well, yeah, but his last original column (for at least a while) ran today.
I, too, will miss the booger jokes, and never ever thought or said, “You used to be funnier.”
Actually, the headline on his column caught my eye today - it was indeed news to me. Of course, that tells you that I probably don’t regularly read his column and keep up on his activities.
So I can’t be the only one this was news to this morning, can I?
He has a blog, but it’s mostly links, not writing. Looks like he’s still keeping it up, at least for now.
Christ…first Schulz, now Barry. Another twenny years and all the papers will be running is recycled shit from dead/retired guys.
… not the Chicago Reader…
That’s it, then. Like Larson, Watterson, and Breathed, he’ll come back for a year or so, then decide that he’d rather spend his time doing whale demolitions, and we’ll never hear from him again. Damn. That blows.
What’s wrong with that?
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Check sig link
Huh?
I didn’t follow Larson’s career, but Watterson stopped drawing Calvin & Hobbes in 1995 and AFAIK has not been heard from since, except to write the text for the C&H Sunday Pages exhibition and book in 2001. And IIRC, Breathed stopped Bloom County, started up Outland a few years later, stopped it after just a year or two, and then just started up Opus in 2004.
What’s all this about whale demolitions, anyway? Was Larson or one of the others involved in that attempt to blow up a beached whale carcass? (Seems unlikely to me.)
Both Watterson and Larson took a year off during their strips run, when they came back to drawing the strips, they only stayed a short period of time before they retired again, this time permantly.
The whale demolitions is a reference to a video clip Barry had on his website, showing the folks in WA state trying to dispose of a beached whale carcass by blowing it up. Can you say, flying sushi? :eek:
I had forgotten about Watterson’s sabbaticals. Now that I look it up, he took two, one from May 5, 1991 to Feb. 1, 1992, and the second April 3 - Dec. 31, 1994.
It wasn’t news to me, but it was still a little sad to read his last column today. And was it just me, or did he not leave us with a single band name? (With the possible exception of “Rollerblade Barbie,” which I actually kinda like but don’t see the folks at Mattel being happy about . . .)
My understanding from today’s column is that he is, indeed, taking a year-long sabbatical, but what will happen at the end of said year is still up in the air. I don’t know whether the Washington Post requires registration; I have a feeling the answer is “yes,” but you’re welcome to try this link.
Dave Barry was hilarious in the 1980s - much more political and punchy. If he recognises that he’s lost that edge, good for him. Maybe in future he’ll come up with a good book occasionally, or do screenplays with Carl Hiaasen? Something like that. I won’t miss the column - I rarely get all the way through it these days.
Here’s a link to the last column through the New York Daily News I don’t think they require registration.
Does anyone outside America think Dave Barry is actually FUNNY? His column used to be syndicated in The Daily Yomiuri {an English language newspaper} in Japan, and among anyone but North Americans, they elicited nothing but stony silences, with faint overtones of pity: “Have you ever taken a two-year old on a plane? Poopy Diapers! Woo-hoo! Band name! The 9/11 terrorists didn’t need knives, they could have used Poopy Diapers! Boogers! Band Name! Have I reached 1000 words yet? Poopy Booger Diapers! Band Name! I am not making this up, I’m being paid by the word. Woo-hoo!”
This is alarmingly close to a “Write Your Own Dave Barry Column” that Dave included in his book Dave Barry In Cyberspace.
(Disclaimer: I like Dave’s stuff, although he’s absolutely right: He used to be funnier.)
Have you tried this?