Great Moments in Journalism: McBarry's Wonderful Return
Speaking of Great Moments in Journalism, remember Dan Barry? He writes the "About New York" column for the Times and was the inaugural winner of the contest. As promised, we sent him a copy of a copy of Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel. Well, on our return home yesterday we found a package, addressed from the New York Times. Dan sent the book back! We had suggested that if he already had a copy he consider donating it to a library; in his estimation, the library that needed it most was ours! Dan also sent a handwritten letter that was both condescending and polite at the same time. We're not going to share it, since we're unsure about privileged communications and such, but we will say this: It's the best thing he's ever written.
Anyway, we've got a copy of Hotel going spare. On the assumption that no one needs to read Joseph Mitchell more than people who read Gawker, we're going to send it to the first one of you who e-mails us the significance of both this post title and today's earlier GMiJ title. And thanks to Dan Barry for playing along.