Thursday, April 28, 2005

DAVE BARRY



Basketball fans wish they could have seen Michael Jordan in person, the same way baseball fans feel about Babe Ruth. For humor columnists, the person they aspire to see is Dave Barry. Last night, I got my chance. A day later, I am still acting like a little school girl.

Barry, who is a Pulitzer Prize Winning columnist, spoke to a sold out crowd last night as part of the Pittsburgh Speakers Series sponsored by Robert Morris University.

It's a really great story how I got my ticket. To obtain a ticket you needed to buy a rather expensive ticket package for the entire series, but my sister e-mailed an employee of Human Services at Robert Morris about my problem. The man was nice enough to send us two free tickets a few days later. There is nothing like a stranger going out of their way to help someone.

The Speakers Series featured famous writers like Henry Kissinger and Mary Higgins Clark. Barry joked that with him being the final speaker, the series worked down the intellectual food chain.

It is a very surreal feeling to see someone you idolize in person. This is especially true in the case of Barry as I have read his books and columns for years but only saw him in small doses on rare television interviews. For a while I thought he was actually a robot created by The Miami Herald.

So in conclusion to this small piece that I wanted to document on the site, we take these two lessons.

1. It's good to have someone you can idolize in your career field.
2. Doing nice things for other people can make a huge impact.
3. It's a good thing I did not personally speak with Dave Barry or he might have placed a restraining order against me.

Check out Dave Barry's website: www.davebarry.com.

Read a recent Q&A, here.

• posted by Dave at 4:26 PM
•