Art Buchwald
When I was growing up, Art Buchwald had a syndicated column in our local paper.
I kind of put him in the same category as William F. Buckley and Omar Shariff -
a bunch of old farts.
When I got older, I started seeing him here and there on Martha’s Vineyard, and
started reading his stuff, and realized he’s funny as hell. He was the auctioneer
at an annual charity auction and he was completely entertaining, and goaded people
into giving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The last year of his life has been written about quite a bit, because he entered a hospice
in DC, and was expecting to live just a few weeks, but instead got well, and was able
to leave the hospice, return to Martha’s Vineyard, and even appear onstage for the
auction this year. His opening line was simply one of the funniest things that has ever
been said: “I was planning to go to heaven, but came to Martha’s Vineyard instead.”
Anyway, I just listened to an NPR tribute, where they played various clips of Art’s appearances,
and he is talking about visiting the WOR radio station in New York where they had the men’s
room locked, but the studio wide open.