3.05.2006
The Genius of Art Buchwald (WashingtonPost.com)
By Ronald G. Shafer
Saturday, March 4, 2006; Page A17
As Art Buchwald keeps his fellow patients in stitches at a Washington hospice, it's time to remember how this national treasure of humor has kept us all laughing for more than 50 years. In his heyday, Buchwald, now 80, was in more newspapers than any other columnist. Harry Truman's secretary of state, Dean Acheson, called him "the greatest satirist in English since Pope and Swift."
Buchwald's genius is that he makes us laugh and he makes us think. He first gained world attention writing from Paris in the 1950s when President Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagerty, called a special NATO press briefing to take seriously a Buchwald spoof column, denouncing it as "unadulterated rot." Buchwald retorted: "Hagerty is wrong -- I write adulterated rot."
In the 1960s Buchwald brought his humor to Washington. Some didn't appreciate it. During the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson caught press secretary Bill Moyers reading a typically antiwar Buchwald column. "Do you think he's funny?" the president barked. To which Moyers quickly replied: "No, sir."
Buchwald rose to new heights during the Watergate scandal, explaining that the sound in the 18 1/2 -minute gap in the White House tapes actually was Nixon humming. His columns on President Reagan, compiled in a book called "While Reagan Slept," earned him a Pulitzer Prize for outstanding commentary in 1982. Even after a stroke in 2000, Buchwald rebounded, jabbing at President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. His columns continued until just a few weeks ago, because, as he said, "I still have fire in the belly."
(More ... The Genius of Art Buchwald) ¶ 20:41
Saturday, March 4, 2006; Page A17
As Art Buchwald keeps his fellow patients in stitches at a Washington hospice, it's time to remember how this national treasure of humor has kept us all laughing for more than 50 years. In his heyday, Buchwald, now 80, was in more newspapers than any other columnist. Harry Truman's secretary of state, Dean Acheson, called him "the greatest satirist in English since Pope and Swift."
Buchwald's genius is that he makes us laugh and he makes us think. He first gained world attention writing from Paris in the 1950s when President Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagerty, called a special NATO press briefing to take seriously a Buchwald spoof column, denouncing it as "unadulterated rot." Buchwald retorted: "Hagerty is wrong -- I write adulterated rot."
In the 1960s Buchwald brought his humor to Washington. Some didn't appreciate it. During the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson caught press secretary Bill Moyers reading a typically antiwar Buchwald column. "Do you think he's funny?" the president barked. To which Moyers quickly replied: "No, sir."
Buchwald rose to new heights during the Watergate scandal, explaining that the sound in the 18 1/2 -minute gap in the White House tapes actually was Nixon humming. His columns on President Reagan, compiled in a book called "While Reagan Slept," earned him a Pulitzer Prize for outstanding commentary in 1982. Even after a stroke in 2000, Buchwald rebounded, jabbing at President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. His columns continued until just a few weeks ago, because, as he said, "I still have fire in the belly."
(More ... The Genius of Art Buchwald) ¶ 20:41
