The Underpants Of Pulitzer-Winning 'Daily News' Reporter Jimmy Breslin
Speaking of old school, this weekend the Times featured an epic 2,000-word Alan Feuer profile of legendary Daily News reporter Jimmy Breslin who's got a book out and, who is, much to Feuer's surprise, still alive, kicking-and working! Gee whiz, good for him. Feuer may not be the most erm, precise reporter on the planet, but like any fabulist worth his salt, he's got a good grip on phrase-turning. "Mr. Breslin's growl is actually more of a squawk and not unlike how a pintail duck might sound if it smoked a pack a day through a kazoo," he writes. Of course, that line sounds like it's pulled straight from a Breslin column, but never let's mind that.
It's a good read, if a little condescending, and full of great Breslinisms-to a onetime mafioso on the phone who's just been informed the Times would like a word with him: "No, on me, not you...It's over art, it ain't over crime...No, he's not going to ask you who you shot." On the best place to find a story: "You went to the loser's locker room after the fight." We didn't really need the section-front art ourselves, but Breslin probably thinks it's fucking hilarious that there's a photograph of his undershorts in the New York Times.