Flashback Friday: My Brief Career as a Newspaper Columnist

Because Friday Is the New Thursday

Throwback Thursday has been moved to Flashback Friday this week, as we’re still trying to figure out our posting schedule. (If you have a preference as to when we do these, please let us know by voting below or in the comments section.)

Today’s post originally appeared in June 2011 and was part of my syndicated column for Tribune Media Services. I was a member of the “Humor Hotel” team and the other columnists were Mark Bazer, Diane Farr, and Michael Showalter—not bad company to be in. We took over Dave Barry’s spot in syndication and we ultimately failed, as the readers never got past the fact that none of us was Dave Barry.

What I took most from the experience of writing a newspaper column is that I never want to write a newspaper column again.

I recall writing one tongue-in-cheek column about how I didn’t care about the secrets the Julian Assange spilled; none of that info was of interest to me. I waxed on about how I wanted to know important things, like which eleven herbs and spices the Colonel used, and why the Kardashians were famous.

Let me say this—readers had opinions.