Artlessness

The man who said, “If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it,” has gone.

Art Buchwald died at home this week and with that, the second half of the 20th century lost the closest thing it had to Will Rogers, Mark Twain, or Jonathan Swift: a deft satirist with the ear of his public.

I didn’t always agree with him, I didn’t always like him and I thought his rapier wit had dulled with the years (and as his above prediction came true). But he taught me that, weapons-wise, humor has it all over nuclear weapons, bio-warfare and even Gandhi.

I thought his job–making fun of the most serious subjects on the planet–was the best job in the world. Apparently he agreed, because even at death’s door he struggled to keep doing it and it kept him alive long after his body should have failed.

Bye, Art.

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