Please understand that I meant NONE of this. It’s just that it’s kinda easy to get Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg going. After no correspondence between us for a couple of years, this was an actual Friday email conversation with Neil:
Jeff: Neil this is the column you shoulda wrote! I just keep getting better!
Neil: I believe it was Cervantes who wrote, “Self-praise is self-condemnation.” Thanks for writing. (Cervantes actually wrote, “Self-praise is self-debasement,” but who’s counting?)
Jeff: I believe it was Muhammad Ali who said, “I am the greatest!” Thanks for replying.
Neil: But he WAS the greatest!
Jeff: And so am I!
And that was it. Y’all oughtta try a middle-school mentality every now and then. They really are a lot of fun!
I briefly worked with Neil at what was then Countryside Press. He was just as brilliant a writer then as he is now, but let’s just say that humility and self-effacement were not his strong suits.
Pan,
He is a great writer and he knows it, too!