NY Times sports writer Ira Berkow’s column remembering Ann Landers (When Bear Consulted an Oracle) surprised me. AKA Esther Lederer, Landers would have been a lot more interesting to me had she published a weblog with some of the observations and advice to public figures that Berkow cites in his column. I don’t resonate with advice columns. It’s hard to see the value of providing simplistic answers to complex problems in people’s lives. Entertaining, sure, but helpful? Probably not that often. But maybe I should. 90 million regular readers? Sheeeeit.
It is kind of cool, though, that Lederer didn’t want to have a funeral. How many famous people have ever done that?
‘Dear Abby’ writes to Wisconsin man she turned in. That guy probably no longer resonates with advice columnists, either. He wrote to Abby — AKA Jeanne Phillips — for help because he was bothered by his sexual fantasies about his girlfriend’s young daughters. She told the police and the whole thing got leaked to the media. He got probation for having child porn and last night was interviewed by Connie Chung on CNN.
Who wins the prize for the biggest mistake: The guy, Abby, the Milwaukee police, Chung, CNN, or the millions who watched the stupid show?