By: E&P Staff Humorist Dave Barry has turned in his final column, which ran this weekend in hundreds of papers around the country. It opens: ?There comes a time in the life of every writer when he asks himself -- as Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Hemingway all surely asked themselves -- if he has any booger jokes left in him. For me, that time has come.?
Barry recalls how he started writing humor columns in college, then continued as a reporter at the West Chester (Pa.) Daily Local News. One day back then an editor took him aside and told him, ?you used to be funnier.?
He says that hardly a week goes by, 30 years later, when someone doesn?t say the same thing to him. ?Why didn't I give up? I'll tell you why: I have no useful skills."
Also, there were always funny things to write about: ?If an important news event occurs -- a toilet exploding, for example; or a boat being sunk by a falling cow; or a cow exploding -- I can count on my readers to let me know about it. ...
?So this is a great job. And yet I'm quitting it, at least for now.
?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 said that after a year off, he will consider coming back but, ?Right now, I truly don't know.?
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