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June 17, 2013

Rabbi Simcha Weinstein: Black to the Future: American Apparel Gets Biblical

Patrik Jonsson: Minnesota Nazi: How did Nazi hunters miss Michael Karkoc?

Kate Irby, Ali Watkins, Trevor Graff and Kevin Thibodeaux: All the ways you're being watched
Don Lee: G-8 meeting will test NSA leaks' effect on U.S. influence

Patrik Jonsson: Fort Hood shooting: Judge nixes Nidal Hasan defense strategy. What now?

Stacey Burling: Why the stigma for migraine sufferers?

The Kosher Gourmet by Lisa Abraham: Does it work? 5 new kitchen gadgets put to the test

June 14, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget: Religious economics and being a ruler

John P. Martin: Hitler insider's missing diary found

Matt Pearce: NSA surveillance disclosure could affect court cases
Peter Tinti: US bounties changes strategy on (Wild, Wild) West African jihadis

Daniel Pendrick, M.D.: Memory loss? Old age may be the least of it

Lauren F. Friedman: But it's all natural! Should we have an instinctive preference for herbal remedies?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Streisand and Alicia Keys in Israel; "Girls" Stuff; Mel Brooks, Another TV special; Superman (who is Jewish) returns --- Israeli plays his mom

The Kosher Gourmet by Sharon K. Ghag : Bored with salad? Bling it up a bit (4 effortless recipes that will result in a 'WOW!')

June 12, 2013

Stephanie Hanes: Little girls or little women? The Disney princess effect

Fred Weir: In tweak to US, Russia would 'consider' asylum for Snowden

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: What's so special about Omega-3 supplements?
Morgan Housel: What newspapers were saying when you should have been buying

Pete Spotts: How cockroaches evolved so as to bypass 'roach motels'

The Kosher Gourmet by Anjali Prasertong: Deep-dish cookie: Warm, gooey and a little over the top

June 10, 2013

Joseph A. Slobodzian: Faith healing and third degree murder: Thorny legal case
Lindsay Wise: Few options for online users to avoid spying, experts say

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: There are plenty of nutritional food bargains out there
Harvard Health Letters: Can bariatric surgery control diabetes?

Zach Murdock: Superglue helps doctors save infant's life

The Kosher Gourmet by Celebrated chef Mario Batali : As good as grilling gets: Rib eye with dry mushroom spice rub

June 7, 2013

Rabbi David Aaron: Beating jealousy

Caroline B. Glick: Wounded . . . and dangerous

Clifford D. May: Al Qaeda vs. Hezbollah
Harvard Health Letters: Fighting back against allergy season

Kimberly Lankford: Grandparents who use FSA to cover grandkid's braces and other must-know info

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom:J ewish Tony Nominees/Tony Awards; Jewish Teen Actor In Sci-Fi Flick; Jewish singer in "Voice" finals

The Kosher Gourmet by Anjali Prasertong: A tart filling so good it might not make it to the crust

June 5, 2013

John Rosemond: Mom, Dad: Talk More and listen less

Kristen Chick: Egypt court sentences 43 pro-democracy workers to prison

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: Mushrooms Have Medicinal As Well As Culinary Value
Morgan Housel: Why you never learn from your investment mistakes

Don Lee: In China, kindergarten rivalry takes deadly turn

The Kosher Gourmet by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan: 30-Minute Coq au Vin isn't a dream

June 3, 2013

Molly Hennessy-Fiske: Military judge to consider letting Fort Hood shooting defendant represent himself

Richard A. Serrano: Pvt. Bradley Manning's WikiLeaks trial also a test for government

Mark Trumbull: Have degree, driving cab: Nearly half of college grads are overqualified
Kim Lankford: What to do when long-term care insurance premiums rise

Deborah Netburn: Study: Adults' mouth bacteria may help babies

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Contestant on 'The Voice'; Will Smith's 'Jewish movie family'; Bravo Gives Long Island Jews the Jersey Shore Treatment; Magicians and More

The Kosher Gourmet by Bill Ward: How to be as refined as the wines at a wine tasting

May 29, 2013

Andrew Connelly and Helene Bienvenu: The Little Synagogue that Refused to Die

Dennis Prager: The 'Muslims-Killed-by-the-West' Lie

David Clark Scott: Open war on teachers?
Morgan Housel: If you know only five things about investing, make it these

Sara Reardon: AGenome detectives change the donation game

Deborah Netburn: A one-way ticket to Mars? 78,000-plus and counting apply by video

The Kosher Gourmet by Bev Bennett: CHEDDAR AND CHERRY MUFFINS --- your mouth is already watering

May 24, 2013

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: When I didn't so 'humbly disagree'

Caroline B. Glick: Thank you, Hafez al-Assad

Diana West: From the Brooklyn Bridge to London
Morgan Housel: Why spotting bubbles is so much harder than you think

Environmental Nutrition editors: NuVal labeling to the rescue?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Memorial Day: Jews Serving and KIA in War on Terror; Liberace Bio-Pic; Jew Wins "Survivor"; Shalom, Dr. Brothers; More

The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen: HIDE THESE FROZEN TREATS FROM THE KIDDIES!: Sangria pops; Irish cream pudding pops; mango Lassi pops

May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting


Jewish World Review Jan. 22, 2007 / 3 Shevat 5767

Buchwald takes an era with him

By Clarence Page


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | I used to wonder what the old, uh, ferrets of the newspaper business were talking about when they grew all wistful and blubbery about "the passing of an era." With the death of Art Buchwald, I no longer wonder. From at least the 1950s, he exemplified the brighter side of our business.


He died Wednesday at age 81. In June, he checked out of a hospice where he said he had grown tired of waiting to die from kidney failure.


I didn't meet him until 2000, after he had suffered a stroke but had recovered well enough to resume writing his column. That was a lucky break for me because it gave me the opportunity to personally tell him during a conference of newspaper editors how much I appreciated him. Reading the greats like Buchwald in high school made me want to be a columnist. Long before there was "The Daily Show" or "Saturday Night Live," Buchwald was like Mad magazine, feeding my generation's adolescent need to poke fun at the pompous and powerful.


He was a humor columnist, which can be the toughest job in the newspaper field. Buchwald usually delivered, and he never stopped trying, right to the end and beyond. Fortune gave him enough time to turn out not only a farewell column but also a farewell book, "Too Soon to Say Goodbye," published a few weeks ago.


All of this followed a legendary career that included a 1982 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. That was more than 30 years after he talked his way into a nightlife column-writing job at the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune. He partied around Paris with Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lena Horne, William Styron, James Jones, Grace Kelly and other swells of literature, politics and show business. Not bad for a poor kid from an orphanage who started both high school and college, yet somehow never managed to finish either one. Those were the days.


At his best, his humor columns offered a prose version of an editorial cartoon, a parallel universe of caricatures. There was Horace Mud, president of the Smear and Dirty Production Co., which specialized in political "smear commercials."


There was Peter Stone, who broke "the six-minute Louvre," the long-standing record for the world's quickest tour by any tourist through the great Paris art museum, "while thousands cheered."


As it happens for many of us who have to be carried out feet-first from the column-writing trade, critics said Buchwald was not as funny in his final days as he used to be.


Maybe, but audiences have changed too. Buchwald and Mad magazine have been overwhelmed by a flood of edgy humorists, some of whom have axes to grind. When the new media wannabes can't come up with true wit, they sometimes turn nasty. "I am Big!" declared actress Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in the film "Sunset Boulevard." "It's the pictures that got small!" Buchwald was big too. It's the political humor that got mean.


Buchwald didn't seem to mind. It was all grist for his imagination. "You can't make up anything anymore," he once said. "The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it."


In his final days, his most meaningful story proved to be him. Doctors told him his kidneys had failed. He tried dialysis and didn't like it. He checked into a hospice. A parade of celebrity friends and well-wishers streamed through. He gave interviews. He wrote the last of his more than 30 books. "I don't know if this is true or not, but I think some people, not many, are starting to wonder why I'm still around," he writes diarylike in his book. "In fact, a few are sending me get-well cards."


After several months, he checked out of the hospice, to spend his final days in Martha's Vineyard, which he said was the closest place he knew to heaven on Earth. "I don't know how long I'll be around on Martha's Vineyard," he writes. "But if nothing else, I know I made an awful lot of people happy."


Yes, he did. Buchwald's grand party is over. It is fortunate that at least some of us had a chance to tell him what a good time we had.

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