Still Funny After All These Many, Many Years

As a fan of daily newspapers, two dark days haunt me: when Bill Watterson produced his last Calvin and Hobbes comic strip and when Dave Barry stopped writing his humor column for The Miami Herald. I can’t tell you exactly what those days were because, obviously, being a newspaper fan means I'm really old and thus have no memory, but still it's sad to think of how two geniuses of humor abandoned the industry I love. Meanwhile Family Circus and George Will- the nation's second-best humor columnist - keep hanging on. Shoot, even Peanuts is still in the newspaper, and Charles Shulz is dead. But not Dave Barry, that turncoat. He’s just old. And the father of a young daughter. And still damn funny. He’s also still writing books, including his latest, You Can Date When You’re Forty, which is almost entirely not about being an old dad of an adolescent girl. It’s essays about death, travel, writing and whatever else he can make funny (everything). Basically, it's the sort of thing we used to get in the newspaper every week until he brutally abandoned the industry that put bread in his mouth all those years. But let's not be bitter. Go hear the man talk about his latest book at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St., 7:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday (his bedtime, one imagines). Auditorium seating is sold out, but live simulcast tickets are available for $15. He'll also be signing copies of the book, which is the perfect opportunity to chat with him about the appalling rates of teen pregnancy these days. Visit dma.ticketleap.com/dave-barry.
Sat., March 15, 7:30 p.m., 2014