‘(highlights of the service)The loudest laughter and the biggest ovation came when friend and fellow writer Linda Lewis quoted one of Ivins’ lines from a recent column:

“The next time I tell you that someone from Texas shouldn’t be president, please pay attention.”‘

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/16626109.htm

Well said, dagon. He does write that well.

peace

The first job of a columnist is to remain readable. Don’t know how many of you are seasoned enough to remember Westbrook Pegler, but if you read him and encountered the name “Eleanor” anywhere in the first graf, you could quit right there: as good a writer as he was you didn’t have to keep reading, you knew what the column was going to say.

The same is true of Anthony Lewis, Thomas Friedman, Maureen Dowd – and it was true of Molly Ivins. You see their by-line and you know what the column says – why bother to read it?

The same could be said of many of them. You know what Coulter’s view will be, though you don’t know what she’ll say, she’s very inventive, she’ll say it with some originality. Possibly you read her to laugh, but certainly not for a fresh view. You know what Krauthammer’s going to say, but his learning is so great, and he is so erudite that you read it anyway, because he’ll say it compellingly and his use of language is a pleasure.

But Ivins? Lewis? Friedman? Rich? No reason to read them. You not only know what they’re going to say, you know how they’ll say it. Not an original bone anywhere, not strong enough writers to read for the enjoyment of their language.