Humorist Dave Barry says so long - for now

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6777802/

MIAMI - Popular humorist Dave Barry said Sunday’s column for The Miami Herald was his last — maybe.

Barry, who has written humor columns for three decades, including 22 years at the Herald, says he’s holding out the possibility of a return.

But for now, he says, “I want to stop before I join the horde of people who think I used to be funnier. And I want to work on some other stuff.”

Barry says he will write occasional pieces, weighing in “from time to time if something really important happens, such as a cow exploding in a boat toilet.”

[cruadin]

1. What about if a boat toilet explodes in a cow?

I mean---I'm just exploring alternative scenarios.

[Syrinx]

2. seems like a nice enough guy

But I never thought he was all that funny. That sitcom based on him was pretty funny though.

[mac56]

3. Funniest man in the known universe.

Deserves a break. I understand he's working on a film with John Cleese.

[Guaranteed]

4. Dave Barry used to be almost the only thing I ever read.

Back in the 80's and early 90's, the guy was a goddamned genius.

Unbelievably hilarious. Wit so biting it struck me green.

I wrote to him once in seventh grade for a class project- tried to write the letter in his style. Talked about his dogs Zippy and Earnest and some other stuff. Told him that if he responded the guards would give me an extra bowl of gruel.

He wrote back with a really nice letter- said "Just remember that everything you're learning right now will be of absolutely no use to you in the future."

On edit: I'm pretty sure he divorced his wife, and I can't see how his dogs could even still be alive. He remarried, but I think his life has changed, and writing being funny is more difficult for him.

[RebelOne]

5. He was my aunt's next door neighbor

when he lived in Pennsylvania.

[Ian David]

6. Dave Barry is awesome

But Dave Barry and Douglas Adams had a negative impact on my writing style in my younger years.

Between third and seventh grade, I thought I could write witty, complex, run-on sentences like they often did. I couldn't even come close to pulling it off.

Doing that is much harder than they make it look.

Dave Barry is a fantastic writer, and I will miss his work.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. Very funny and brilliant man

It's nice to see that we seem to be geting into a situation of people leaving their careers while they are still at the toip of the game, before they turn into nothing but parodies of themselves. I think of Bill Watterson and Berkley Breathed and others who stopped doing what they were doing while it was still good.

Smart people.

I love Dave Barry - I can't believe he's been writing for so long - more than half of my life! I first read him high school, maybe junior high. I remember using his book "Taming of the Screw" as a reference in a research paper for a humanities class either my senior or junior year of high school.

[Z_I_Peevey]

8. I've always loved Dave Barry,

and I can't blame him a bit. I don't know how he has managed to be so funny, so regularly, for 30 years.