Posted 12:54 AM by Gene

NOTE: Professor InstaPundit plugs Dave Barry's blog, which is rather like Rupert and Bill plugging a Knight Ridder Web site. I'm lucky if I got five visits all of last week. Ah well, I blog on. (I may install a counter soon; that'll be good for the ego.)

Oh, I've seen his latest book (number 8,950 on Amazon.com; by the way, AllDirect.com's prices are better). The first thing you notice when you pick it up (only, as most do, to put it down) is that cute foreword where the author warns that his book contains naughty words. This might seem disarming to some, but then you ask yourself, why is it necessary to use "bad words" in the first place?

Dave Barry's good for a chuckle, not much more. Yes, some sour grapes from a would-be comic novelist, and I'll concede that, but when you consider how many "humorists" have withered and died in newspapers (Art Buchwald being the most prominent example), not to mention the many risible comic-strip artists like Bil Keane who've dragged their numb carcasses and their dead panels through year after year after year (Bill Watterson and Gary Larson were wise to quit before senility set in), it's best not to overrate people.