Running for Your Life: Russell Baker

Just try to be write a humor column in a daily newspaper – and do so in a way that when you die, the reminiscences and eulogies and words of praise flow like ice melt from the +2C increase in average global temperature ….

Russell Baker, of course, would never write such a ham-fisted comparison. Baker, who died last month, is much too classy for that.

I have this vintage New York Times Magazine from April 28, 1985. To date the issue and those glory years of newspapers, the cover story was by the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, writing about the socialist revolution in Nicaragua. (The 112-page publication is LOADED with display ads … )

And on Page 26, Russell Baker wrote his Sunday Observer column, this one called “Computer Passion” (with charming unself-conscious Bakeresque illustration by Patrick McDonnell).

Presciently, in that oh-so-simpler time, Baker is riffing on how absurd the idea is that you could fall in love with personal technology.

Consider his lede:

“Many tycoons of the computer industry have written begging me to tell them how to recover from the sales slump threatening disaster for the personal-computer business, and I do so gladly, for it is painful to see a tycoon in despair.”

Then the kicker:

“Sex is the solution, gentlemen. Paint those things Passion Orange and get them into the boudoir.”

Man, I miss Russell Baker’s wry wit and humility … Call him a throwback, but frankly, I’d gladly throw back every one of today’s poor excuses for daily humor columnists for just one Russell Baker.

Next: Running for Your Life: A Brief History …