tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post5494148470185558368..comments2024-03-28T09:06:06.709-05:00Comments on Every goddamn day: 03/28/24: Flashback: All Summer LongNeil Steinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-57051900522237256802016-10-15T10:04:49.797-05:002016-10-15T10:04:49.797-05:00Ugh. Bob Greene. What did it for me was when he ...Ugh. Bob Greene. What did it for me was when he was writing about all the gun deaths in the US, and then suggested we be put under martial law or UN control.<br /><br />I actually wrote the paper, because I think the stats in his column were roughly 25,000 deaths--a number that terrified Greene. The fact that there were nearly 300 MILLION of us at the time, so he wanted martial law for a murder rate of less than 99.9%? Just mind boggling stupid.Caren Tarvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17652372965671115486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-13090418681530674782015-10-15T22:31:23.274-05:002015-10-15T22:31:23.274-05:00Exactly! By the way, I used to get ridiculously ex...Exactly! By the way, I used to get ridiculously excited when there was a Bob Watch column. I'd save it to read on Sundays in bed. Those columns made my whole week. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-87099745742919146762015-10-15T20:49:14.804-05:002015-10-15T20:49:14.804-05:00He seemed to think accused criminals should simply...He seemed to think accused criminals should simply be taken out behind the police station and killed.Neil Steinberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-68329642195270012472015-10-15T17:03:36.632-05:002015-10-15T17:03:36.632-05:00This perceptive attack on Bob Greene's literar...This perceptive attack on Bob Greene's literary phlegm, All Summer Long, was wonderful to read. When that book came out, I kept thinking who would bother with such slush.<br /><br />One thing I couldn't stand about Greene was his excessive sentimentality about Ohio. I always thought he'd be happier whittling on a porch in Ohio than writing for major newspapers in Chicago. That's not a rub against Ohio; I realize you grew up there. It's just that Greene had little enthusiasm, zest and curiosity for a great job--a newspaper columnist in Chicago--that some journalists would give up their first born to have.<br /><br />Sometimes Greene would write an insightful column. I remember one that drew a link between the popular X symbolism among right-wing whites longing for the days of the Confederacy and black nationalists pining for a new Malcolm X. But solid columns from Greene were rare.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-33046991758245058522015-10-15T16:56:16.460-05:002015-10-15T16:56:16.460-05:00Almost gave up on The McDermotts of Ballycloran, n...Almost gave up on The McDermotts of Ballycloran, not that the writing was bad, but every single character who wasn't evil, was miserable and Trollope even foreshadowed more and more misery to come, and it did, over and over again, such that death was welcome and it too appeared over and over.<br /><br />johntatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10088632798195131329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-45101883439179058682015-10-15T14:26:26.279-05:002015-10-15T14:26:26.279-05:00Oh Bob Greene. So many reason to absolutely loathe...Oh Bob Greene. So many reason to absolutely loathe him. The Baby Richards morass, the sexual harassment of young women, the absolutely terrible writing.<br /><br />But for me the final straw was a column where he maligned with brutality and a sense of superiority the appeals process for a convict who had confessed. I mean he'd confessed what more was there to say. A lot, as many hardworking attorneys have established. Bob Greene was too stupid to know that. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-10925237587009857132015-10-15T14:15:38.435-05:002015-10-15T14:15:38.435-05:00The phrase I recall reading over and over was a re...The phrase I recall reading over and over was a reference to his biological father's home, "where he had never spent a single night." It got to be a joke to see if it would be in the day's paper. Coeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06130250489695215525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-14223137328624746652015-10-15T14:13:04.125-05:002015-10-15T14:13:04.125-05:00I don't remember much about Green -- seldom lo...I don't remember much about Green -- seldom looked into the Trib those days. And have no wish to return there. However, Neil's mentioning "The Sorrows of Young Werther" and its influence on the impressionable youth of its time, offers an opening to quote one of the great put downs of the 19th Century. Not a book review but a little poem by William Makepeace Thackeray.<br /><br /> "Werther had a love for Charlotte<br /> Such as words could never utter.<br /> Would you know how first he met her?<br /> She was cutting bread and butter.<br /><br /> Charlotte was a married lady<br /> And a moral man was Werther,<br /> And for all the wealth of indies,<br /> Would do nothing for to hurt her.<br /><br /> So he sighted and pined and ogled,<br /> And his passion boiled and bubbled.<br /> Till he blew his silly brains out,<br /> And not more was by it troubled.<br /><br /> Charlotte, having seen his body<br /> Borne before her on a shutter.<br /> Like a well conducted person,<br /> Went on cutting bread and butter."<br /><br />Tom Evans<br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-77020342534240422882015-10-15T11:58:49.930-05:002015-10-15T11:58:49.930-05:00I'll be honest: I never got to the end. I had ...I'll be honest: I never got to the end. I had to stop. It truly was a wrenching experience to read something so bad.Neil Steinberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-67855846831540915332015-10-15T11:58:14.322-05:002015-10-15T11:58:14.322-05:00It did seem to resonate, and I did think of the ch...It did seem to resonate, and I did think of the cheeseburger connection. He mentions cheeseburgers in the title of one of his collections. Neil Steinberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-19461032436435899472015-10-15T11:39:24.287-05:002015-10-15T11:39:24.287-05:00Hmmm... That Big Boy photo seems to work for this...Hmmm... That Big Boy photo seems to work for this post on so many levels. It could well be a "Bob's Big Boy." Greene certainly loved cheeseburgers, not to mention cranking out a lot of cheese, himself. The place represents the type of third-rate, nostalgic Americana that was his stock-in-trade. But, most remarkably, I think that may be one of his toupees that the little big man is sporting!Jakashnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-17005560882090550792015-10-15T11:20:51.457-05:002015-10-15T11:20:51.457-05:00I fell for the Baby Richard saga for a while, unti...I fell for the Baby Richard saga for a while, until I thought I was reading re-prints of the same column, over and over, wondering how the paper could get away with such a thing. It's never too late to wise up.<br /><br />I'd much rather eat at a Big Boy restaurant (top photo) than read one sentence of "All Summer Long".<br /><br />SandyKnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-20223696818677248702015-10-15T10:00:27.859-05:002015-10-15T10:00:27.859-05:00Usually I tell people, if you don't like a wri...Usually I tell people, if you don't like a writer, don't read him or her. But in Bob's heyday, that advice seemed inadequate, if not impossible. His column, usually the seven millionth one about Baby Richard, took up what seemed like half of the front page of the Tempo section, topped with his fat, smirking face and ridiculous toupee.<br /><br />When he fell, if schadenfreude were an opiate, I would have OD'd.Bitter Scribenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-20159370223663600892015-10-15T09:09:30.686-05:002015-10-15T09:09:30.686-05:00Does the book have a happy ending (no, not that ki...Does the book have a happy ending (no, not that kind)? Lessons learned? Everything Ben needed he already had, etc.?Coeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06130250489695215525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-45973263095409119762015-10-15T08:47:00.328-05:002015-10-15T08:47:00.328-05:00And I did feel like I was sort of just throwing an...And I did feel like I was sort of just throwing anything up today. But the final, drop dead, no more changes manuscript was due at the University of Chicago Press this morning, and I just didn't have any gas in the tank last night. Neil Steinberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-41402655407380378012015-10-15T08:28:18.910-05:002015-10-15T08:28:18.910-05:00Any additional criticism of Bob Greene at this poi...Any additional criticism of Bob Greene at this point would be piling on a pile of, well something. There must be something nice to find about Bob Greene, so search after Google search, reveals he has a likable middle name. Danny Kirchner is now 24 years old, and seems to be a normal person, thank goodness. Here is a <a href="http://www.firstmotherforum.com/2012/01/when-best-interests-of-child-violate.html" rel="nofollow">good article</a> from 2012 by Jane Edwards, summarizing the Baby Richard story, and similar cases. It includes a quote from Justice James Heiple that demonstrates the Judge was not such a bad fellow after all.Berniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17157600812959885192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-60423337506414783232015-10-15T07:49:12.538-05:002015-10-15T07:49:12.538-05:00Hilarious, especially the lack of reality of wives...Hilarious, especially the lack of reality of wives being left with small kids and just saying-happy trails.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com