Too many good people dying this week.
One of my all-time favorites - a gifted writer and a superb teller of tales. Also known for precise skewering of the powerful.
My favorite is his description of Rudy Giuliani - “A short man in search of a balcony.” Priceless.
“The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” is one of my favorite books. The movie wasn’t as funny.
Arrivederci Jimmy. Thanks.
From his love and passion The Daily News,RIP Mr Breslin remember you well from back in the day growing up with your reporting.
“Jimmy Breslin — the cigar-chomping, hard-nosed newspaperman who won the Pulitzer Prize for his Daily News’ columns championing ordinary New Yorkers — died Sunday morning. He was 88.”
Because I grew up in the Boston area in the 60’s I was familiar with this wise guy. His writing and a lot of the New England mob scandals are intertwined in my memory.
I grew up reading Breslin, and as with Mike McAlary I always knew that when Jimmy was gone, his populist almost fable-like style of hard-nosed-yet-magical reporting would die with him, and it has. What a sad day.
I came to age reading Breslin as well as the others at the NY Daily News. The summer of 77 aka The Summer of Sam it was required reading every day to see what was going on.
Interesting aside. His wife Ronnie Eldridge was a NYC council member representing the Upper West Side frequently battled Trump.
That is interesting because Breslin wasn’t from Boston, he was from New York, a mistake no Bostonian should ever make. And The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight" wasn’t about the “Boston mob.” It was about the New York mafia.
Jimmy Breslin’s book The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight" was about the New York mafia, not the “Boston mob.” Breslin was a born-and-bred New Yorker, he didn’t write about the Boston mob.
Breslin… Gone. It’s like saying NewYork City is closing forever. Something you just cannot imagine even in your worst moments. There was Mike Royko in Chicago, Jimmy Breslin in NYC, and Herb Caen in San Francisco. As long as they were there, something was right with the world, and agree or disagree, it usually added up to the straight story.
We need a hundred no, one thousand more like them now. And you couldn’t replace them for their weights in gold, silver or gems.
Today, we have a 24/7 hootenanny owned by billionaires who make up “news” as they go along, and the public swallows it hook, line, and sinker…
Excuse me, that oughta be Hook, Line, and Stinker.
Back when you had to work a lot harder at being a reporter, and it wasn’t a “glamor job” everybody wanted to be as good as Jimmy Breslin. As good with words, as good with guts, as good with bringing life to your readers so they could share it. Good, Bad, everything in between. You got that from Jimmy Breslin, 100% of the time.
People who never read him missed something good. Like seeing DiMaggio, Sandy Koufax or Yogi Berra play ball. Or hearing Ed Murrow just about anytime. If a Reporter was what you wanted to be, Jimmy Breslin was in the same class, and everybody looked up to him.
Read this:
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/digging-grave-an-honor.htm
Now, you’ll excuse me if I go and have a good cry. Again.