Tuesday, May 24, 2005

ROBIN DOUGHERTY. Television and book critic Robin Dougherty, with whom I had the pleasure of working at the Phoenix in the early '90s, has died at 45. This Miami Herald obit requires you to go through an unusually onerous registration process before you can read it, but it's as generous as Robin was.

Here is a piece she wrote for the Boston Globe just a few months ago. In 1997, she wrote this smart essay for Salon on The Graduate, on the occasion of the film's 30th anniversary.

THE PAST RECEDES. Jeremiah Murphy, who died on Sunday, wasn't as well-known as some other Boston Globe columnists who've passed away, such as David Nyhan or Will McDonough. But I certainly remember reading his column for many years. This obit, by Tom Long, is a nice tribute.

I recall one absolutely classic Murphy column. Some sleazy old Somerville pol was on the skids, and Murphy decided to pay him a visit. Murphy torched him from start to finish, even going so far as to blast the guy for pleading with him, Don't screw me, okay?

It was a Hall of Fame entry in the kick-'em-when-they're-down school of column-writing. I tried to look it up and couldn't find it, which is too bad. The Globe should put it online.

HOWLING AT OKRENT. If you were puzzled - or outraged - by the cheap shot that the New York Times' departing public editor, Daniel Okrent, took at columnist Paul Krugman on Sunday, then you must read Mr. Somerby (second item).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okrent filled his time as Public Editor (Public Enemy) rather poorly one thinks. Early in his tenure, a reader elegantly wrote about Safire's onomasiology, and his, Safire's, considerable use malaprop.

Okrent was totally clueless as to the meaning of the letter he was responding to, henceforth rendering himself neutered.

Anonymous said...

For a "must read," that link was pretty...flyweight.

Anonymous said...

The most telling bit about Orkent's piece is his ire at Joe Queenan's review of A. J. Jacobs' book. Perhaps he fears being called a "pedigreed simpleton" as well.