Byline: Jack Mabley
Life Isn't Fair
I am a good example. I have substantial resources, both spiritual and material. I have a good wife and a loving family.
I've led, and am leading, a wonderful life (thank you James Stewart).
I have a sense of guilt that I have so much and so many people on this planet have so little. I try to share with others, but the effort is like a grain of sand in a sandbox.
Age is in the head - and knees.
I am a bit old for a newspaper columnist. OK, very old as columnists go. I'm only a year or two older than Andy Rooney.
Studs Terkel, an old friend in his early 90s, keeps turning out books.
When I started at the Herald 17 years ago ,there was an awareness of my advanced years.
Today, I rarely hear anything about age. I am judged by what I write.
I get occasional letters saying I'm wrong about almost everything so "why don't you retire?"
My response is why don't you get back to reading Cal Thomas and George Will and stop getting agitated reading me?
"Goodbye, old and faithful employee," the CEO said with a firm handclasp and a check for a lousy $17,000.
The Tribune retired me two decades ago because they had a mandatory retirement age. I interpreted that as their thinking anybody over 65 is starting to lose it.
They gave me a pension of $17,000 a year. It wasn't much then and it's even less now because they've made no cost-of-living adjustment.
So I came to the Daily Herald and I'm enjoying the best years of my life.
Change is here
All this is leading up to an adjustment in the delivery of this column.
Sometime soon I will be writing a web site blog that I'm working to set up now. It will be unlimited in length.
I am not a particularly good writer. Partner Burt is a superb writer.
My schtick is economy. I try to use words precisely suited to the subject, and as few words as necessary for a column to be both informative and provocative.
A few thousand friends
A huge plus for the Internet is the fast communication.
I admire the U.S. Postal Service and its carriers and clerks and other human beings who, unlike computers, never flame out or mess up a message or generally aggravate you beyond measure.
But writing or typing a letter, addressing it, and posting in the nearest mail box, takes time.
With computers you write the letter on the screen, hit the "Send" button, and it's delivered.
Not all Daily Herald readers have computers, but I think most do and use the Internet.
The fact you are reading this newspaper at this moment shows you are well-informed. Adding the Chicago papers can make you a little better informed. Reading the New York Times and one or two news magazines means best informed.
He said/she said
I love the give and take with our readers. If I figure 10 e- mails a day, seven days a week, 50 weeks a year, we have some 7,000 exchanges a year.
I want to generate even more messages under the new delivery system.
I'm proud to be part of the Daily Herald family and contributing to our gaining new readers while other dailies are battling to hold on to theirs.
Change is healthy and inevitable. My modest ambition is to get bigger and better.
Starting now.
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