Comments on: Messy. Crazy. Brilliant. Insane. Reporter.

Messy. Crazy. Brilliant. Insane. Reporter.

zarq — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:41:51 -0800

How Do You Explain Gene Weingarten? (Via).

Weingarten has been featured on Metafilter before, most notably for the two stories that won him Pulitzer Prizes, mentioned in the above profile: * Fatal Distraction: Article / Mefi Post * Pearls before Breakfast: Article / Mefi Post / MeTa Post. And for: * The Peekaboo Paradox: Article / Mefi Post * The Ghost of the Hardy Boys: Article / MeFi Post * The Car That Goes Whoosh: Article / MeFi Post "None of the Above" is mentioned at the end of the profile. A preview of the book "The Fiddler in the Subway," a collection of some of his better columns, is available at Google Books. Weingarten's humor column is Below the Beltway. He conducts a live, online chat (see transcripts at Chatological Humor) every Tuesday with Washington Post readers. The Barney and Clyde comic. Mother Jones (2010): Secrets of a Two-Time Pulitzer Winner.

By: zarq

zarq — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:49:08 -0800

Meant to mention this in the post, but forgot: The Peekaboo Paradox is the story of the Great Zucchini.

By: k5.user

k5.user — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:50:36 -0800

His feature writing is great. His humor writing is very not-great, though in humor, that's all very subjective. His comic is very hit/miss. He took over for Dave Barry, but that was a loss for us all. His chats can be entertaining. I never dug in enough to see if his self-aggrandizing is just a schtick or his real persona, but I found it such a turn off I stopped reading his chats and humor columns.

By: Naberius

Naberius — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:50:44 -0800

Well, when a Mommy Weingarten and a Daddy Weingarten love each other very much...

By: empath

empath — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:53:05 -0800

His article about an isolated community in Alaska was pretty good, also.

Lately? She counted in her head. Four in the past year. But those are just the ones that succeeded. Lately, she said, there have been as many as six unsuccessful attempts in a single month, among people from ages 13 to 18. This is in a place with a total population of 700.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:53:13 -0800

He explains himself pretty well: He once wrote, in reference to Dave Barry, "I simply do what he does, only worse."

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:54:02 -0800

I pass his house nearly every day on my walk to work, and regularly see him, his wife, his son, and/or various dogs. I know which car he drives. I'm not stalking him. No, I'm not.

By: empath

empath — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:55:30 -0800

His humor writing is very not-great, though in humor, that's all very subjective It's very cheesy and safe. I used to really love the Style Invitation when I actually got the Post at home. I don't know if he still does that anymore. I can't imagine that he has the time.

By: kuanes

kuanes — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:56:25 -0800

Nthing the "features are great/humor 'column' is not" thing about Weingarten. I think he has about five themes that he creates variations of for the weekly column. Though I do approve and support his DC Scavenger Hunt thingy.

By: Apropos of Something

Apropos of Something — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:11:47 -0800

We all have our coping strategies.

By: Chrysostom

Chrysostom — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:19:39 -0800

I find his feature writing not that great, either. The premise of "The Fiddler on the Subway" was pretty bs, for one thing.

By: jenfullmoon

jenfullmoon — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:42:32 -0800

I really like him. I like people that vacillate between funny and serious and his chats are always entertaining. Battle Mountain: Armpit Of America is my favorite, though. Especially since I've been through there. Here's his reaction to today's story, btw.

By: aught

aught — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:06:03 -0800

I don't know how to explain him, but his daughter Molly was the student assistant a few years ago once when I took my cat in to the university vet school for a checkup (Cornell). She was a little odd (maybe just because she wasn't desperately over-eager like so many of the vet student assistants are?) but she seemed competent enough. Somehow it did come up in the course of my cat's exam that her father is a well known newspaper columnist who writes embarrassing things about her in his column, though, which in retrospect seems strange.

By: Pruitt-Igoe

Pruitt-Igoe — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:50:48 -0800

"Pears Before Breakfast" earned him a Pulitzer? :(

By: Rory Marinich

Rory Marinich — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:03:55 -0800

"He's interested in human beings," Stuever says. "Visible panty lines, farts, turds—all of that is desperately human. It's horrifying, but it's interesting. It's gross, but it's interesting." Something about that resonated with me. Thanks for posting this, zarq. I've read a few of his articles (and I continue to skip over the one about the child dying), but I never associated them with a name before. It's a fascinating look at an interesting man, and I think I'll remember the name.

By: zarq

zarq — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:26:37 -0800

Rory Marinich: "Thanks for posting this, zarq. You're very welcome! I've read a few of his articles (and I continue to skip over the one about the child dying), but I never associated them with a name before. Funny how that can happen, isn't it? The Fatal Distraction article, the one about the children being left in their car seats was... awful. Heartwrenching. I had to stop reading it about halfway through because it made me cry. I'd have skipped it if I'd known in advance what it said. Oh, and there was also a MeTa post. ... I know a lot of people were not enamored with it, but I enjoyed the Pearls before Breakfast article. He's also the author of one of my all-time favorite pieces of writing: And God Said Let There Be Light in Kansas.

By: pardonyou?

pardonyou? — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:37:47 -0800

Cool, thanks zarq! As the person who posted The Great Zucchini (aka "The Peekaboo Paradox"), it was fun to learn that almost everyone considers it his best piece. To this day reading that story was a singular experience -- almost physical, like the cliche of getting gut punched. I like the others a lot -- including "Pearls Before Breakfast" (what's with the hate?), but nothing comes close to The Great Zucchini for me (I haven't read the car seat story for the same reasons cited by others).

By: Rory Marinich

Rory Marinich — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:58:24 -0800

Actually, inspired by some of the other articles about him, I finally read the one about the abandoned children. It's powerful and tragic, but somehow – forgive me if this is the wrong word – comforting. It allows the parents who let the unthinkable happen to their kids remain human. I love that Weingarten focused on the mother who seemed the coldest and most callous, and worked away at her until he got at what made her human.

By: ThatCanadianGirl

ThatCanadianGirl — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:33:22 -0800

Reading that breathtaking "babies in car seats" article, I wondered what kind of person could do that kind of interview, ask those questions, probe to those awful places. I didn't know any of his other work. But I guess it takes kind of an offbeat personality to be able to do that. My god that was powerful writing.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:39:09 -0800

I've loved his work since I moved to DC, where he is very much a local legend. I didn't realize that the Great Zucchini article was his, though that one has stuck with me for years. (Incidentally, I'm doing spotlight work for a British Pantomime show right now, and at one point the characters make a passing reference to The Great Zucchini, and a bell rang off in my head that, yeah, I guess this guy is still a big damn deal in the area.) I see now that he probably feels a great deal of kinship with Zucchini - two wildly popular entertainers with slovenly, odd personal lives who can;t quite put a finger on what makes people love them so, and so are hesitantly riding that train without really understanding it.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:33:33 -0800

OK, just read the Great Zucchini article. Last time I saw it I didn't get past the first page. Indeed, Weingarten has a style like peeling an onion. By the end, wow.

By: bardic

bardic — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:19:32 -0800

Such a hack.

By: PussKillian

PussKillian — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:26:07 -0800

Love him and make a point of hanging out during his chats. And god, the children in cars article was so incredible. Just...bravura writing.

By: oneear

oneear — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:42:04 -0800

I love the chats and long pieces. Don't read Below the Beltway much. btw the chats are now monthly w/weekly updates - next one is 1/3.

By: Han Tzu

Han Tzu — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:57:11 -0800

Where's scrump been? :(

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 07:19:33 -0800

I saw Gene Weingarten carrying a bag of dog poop this morning.

By: exogenous

exogenous — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:48:09 -0800

Help Gene win an AK-47