Joho the Blog
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Sorry, but that doesn't seem like an interview at all. Looks like an advertisement for your book.

BTW, were you a gag writer for Woody Allen (the person) or for a comic strip based on Woody Allen? Did you write for Woody Allen's stand-up routines? In the article, it says, you "worked as a gag writer for Woody Allen."

Well, Ed called me on the phone, asked me questions, and wrote a column based on what we'd said. So, I count that as an interview. Don't you?

I'm also glad Ed liked the book and said some nice things about it.

I wrote about 40-50 percent of the gags published as the Inside Woody Allen comic strip for the seven yrs of its run, from the mid seventies to the mid eighties. Allen edited the strip, which means he reviewed every submission, edited them, and selected them.

The Woody Allen work is often mentioned in your bio that way, and I just mentioned it because I think working for a comic strip about the Woody Allen character (although very interesting) isn't quite as significant as working for Woody Allen the person. The way it's stated seems to imply you were part of the inner circle of people involved in Woody Allen's great genius.

If you check my bio page, in the "stomach churning hype-y" version of my bio, II indicate exactly what my relationship was in the "truth-y popups." In the other bios on that page, I either omit the credit or spell it out. And since Allen edited my jokes and selected which ones to run, I think the abbreviated version is a fair credit. I understand if you do not, however.

(in case you haven't done any vanity surfing lately...)

People far and wide are introducing you as a former joke writer for Woody Allen.

I think I understand.

Funny: Eric classifies the interview as an advertisement. Reading it, I thought it fell into the category of those that offend a fundamentalist friend of mine, who gets upset at the notion that Christianity was influenced by pagans.
Sort of makes you think that there is not a single order of the universe.

@johne

I suppose one could call the article a friendly discussion about the book that Weinberger is currently selling (as opposed to a discussion about Weinberger and his ideas). It's just like those interviews with movie directors who have a movie coming out. I guess there's nothing wrong with that.

(I'm not sure what you're getting at with the stuff about Christianity...)

Advertisements are paid messages promoting a product or service.

Newspaper columns express the opinion of the columnist.

Nobody paid me to write nice things about the book, or even asked me to do so.

I read the book and was impressed by it and thought a discussion of it would be interesting to readers of my column.

You're right. It's not a paid advertisement. Wrong choice of words.

Whatever. I sure wish someone would get more copies to Amazon. They weren't able to ship me one yet.

@Eric Gauvin - the phrase I use to describe those sorts of things is "deposit in the favor-bank" (see Bonfire Of The Vanities for an elaboration).

Okay. I'll have to read that book. It's been on my list for a long time.

You're right. It's not a paid advertisement. Wrong choice of words.

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