Russell Baker, Times Columnist and Celebrated Humorist, Dies at 93

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Times

Russell Baker, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose whimsical, irreverent “Observer” column appeared in The New York Times and hundreds of other newspapers for 36 years and turned a backwoods-born Virginian into one of America’s most celebrated writers, died on Monday at his home in Leesburg, Va. He was 93.

The cause was complications from a fall, according to his son Allen Baker.

Mr. Baker, along with the syndicated columnist Art Buchwald (who died in 2007), was one of the best-known newspaper humorists of his time, and The Washington Post ranked his best-selling autobiography, “Growing Up,” with the most enduring recollections of American boyhood — those of James Thurber, H. L. Mencken and Mark Twain.

In a career begun in a rakish fedora and the smoky press rooms of the 1940s, Mr. Baker was a police reporter, a rewrite man and a London correspondent for The Baltimore Sun, and after 1954 a Washington correspondent for The Times, rising swiftly with a clattering typewriter and a deft writer’s touch to cover the White House, Congress and the presidential campaigns of 1956 and 1960.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/business/media/russell-baker-dead.html

[Botany]

1. In the late 1960s my Dad introduced Mr. Baker to an audience @ Allegheny College in N.W. PA

And right now my Dad is in home hospice after a fall last Thanksgiving.

"The cause was complications from a fall, according to his son Allen Baker."

Mr. Baker's obit in the NY Times makes me smile. The man had real skills.

[KT2000]

2. enjoyed his columns

enjoyed his book too. RIP Mr. Baker

[elleng]

3. FRUITCAKE IS FOREVER.

'Thirty-four years ago, I inherited the family fruitcake. Fruitcake is the only food durable enough to become a family heirloom. It had been in my grandmother's possession since 1880, and she passed it to a niece in 1933.

Surprisingly, the niece, who had always seemed to detest me, left it to me in her will. There was the usual family backbiting when the will was read. Relatives grumbled that I had no right to the family fruitcake. Some whispered that I had ''got to'' the dying woman when she was in extremis and guided her hand while she altered her will.

Nothing could be more absurd, since my dislike of fruitcake is notorious throughout the family. This distaste dates from a Christmas dinner when, at the age of 15, I dropped a small piece of fruitcake and shattered every bone in my right foot.

I would have renounced my inheritance except for the sentiment of the thing, for the family fruitcake was the symbol of our family's roots. When my grandmother inherited it, it was already 86 years old, having been baked by her great-grandfather in 1794 as a Christmas gift for President George Washington.

Washington, with his high- flown view of ethical standards for Government workers, sent it back with thanks, explaining that he thought it unseemly for Presidents to accept gifts weighing more than 80 pounds, even though they were only eight inches in diameter. This, at any rate, is the family story, and you can take it for what it's worth, which probably isn't much.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/25/magazine/sunday-observer-fruitcake-is-forever.html

[lunatica]

5. Hahahaahahaaa!

Priceless!

“ This afternoon, I shall bring it out again when 25 to 30 relatives come to dinner, and afterward we will all groan as people always groan when their interiors feel clogged with cement.”

[Hekate]

4. RIP, Russell Baker, and thanks for your deft touch with the language

[Deb]

6. My condolences to his family and friends

This thoughtfully contains a description of the sound of his voice. He "talked to me" in print so I made up his voice while reading.

[gademocrat7]

7. RIP, Mr. Baker.

He was a national treasure.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Have read his work on and off for years

What a loss. It is the rare individual who can convey the subtleties of life with such a remarkable series of artfully-crafted asides.

R.I.P.

[George II]

9. I started reading his columns when I was in high school (mid-60s) He had a one of a kind...

....wry sense of humor.

[elleng]

10. Francs and Beans

another example of his great, humorous work.

'As chance would have it, the very evening Craig Claiborne ate his historic $4,000 dinner for two with 31 dishes and nine wines in Paris, Lucullan repast for one was prepared and consumed in New York by this correspondent, no slouch himself when it comes to titillating the palate.

Mr. Claiborne won his meal in a television fund‐raising auction and had it professionally prepared. Mine was created from spur‐of‐the‐moment inspiration, necessitated when I discovered a note on the stove saying, “Am eating out with Dora and Imogene—make dinner for yourself.” It was from the person who regularly does the cooking at my house and, though disconcerted at first, I quickly rose to the challenge.

The meal opened with a 1975 Diet Pepsi served in a disposable bottle. Although its bouquet was negligible, its distinct metallic aftertaste evoked memories of tin cans one had licked experimentally in the first flush of childhood's curiosity.

To create the balance of tastes so cherished by the epicurean palate, I followed with a paté de fruites de nuts of Georgia, prepared according to my own recipe. A half‐inch layer of creamy‐style peanut butter is troweled onto a graham cracker, then half a banana is crudely diced and pressed firmly into the peanut butter and cemented in place as it were by a second graham cracker.

The accompanying drink was cold milk served in a wide‐brimmed jelly glass. This is essential to proper consumption of the pate, since the entire confection must be dipped into the milk to soften it for eating. In making the presentation to the mouth, one must beware lest the milk‐soaked portion of the sandwich fall onto the necktie. Thus, seasoned gourmandisers follow the old maxim of the Breton chefs and “bring the mouth to the jelly glass.”'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/18/archives/francs-and-beans.html?

[FakeNoose]

11. Russell Baker was the Norman Rockwell of American humorists

I always looked for his columns and enjoyed them immensely.
RIP Mr. Baker, and thanks for all the chuckles over the years.