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26-660: David McAlister Barry (born July 3, 1947) is an American author and columnist who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody , as well as comic novels and children's novels . Barry's honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1988) and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism (2005). Barry has defined

52-465: A copy editor at the Associated Press 's Philadelphia bureau before joining Burger Associates, a consulting firm. At Burger, he taught effective writing to businesspeople. In his own words, he "spent nearly eight years trying to get various businesspersons to...stop writing things like 'Enclosed please find the enclosed enclosures,' but...eventually realized that it was hopeless." In 1981 he wrote

78-683: A Pirate? Here's How! ( ISBN   0-451-21649-0 ), a follow-up to Barry's role in publicizing International Talk Like a Pirate Day . His books have frequently appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list . On October 31, 2004, Barry announced that he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence of at least a year from his weekly column to spend more time with his family. In December 2005, Barry said in an interview with Editor & Publisher that he would not resume his weekly column, although he would continue such features as his yearly gift guide, his year-in-review feature, and his blog, as well as an occasional article or column. In 2005, Barry won

104-459: A device for presenting fresh insights into serious concerns." Barry's first novel, Big Trouble , was published in 1999. The book was adapted into a motion picture directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Tim Allen , Rene Russo , and Patrick Warburton , with a cameo by Barry (deleted in post-production ). The movie was originally due for release in September 2001 but was postponed following

130-512: A general-assignment reporter for the Daily Local News in West Chester, Pennsylvania , near his alma mater , Haverford College. He covered local government and civic events and was promoted to City Editor after about two years. He also started writing a weekly humor column for the paper and began to develop his unique style. He remained at the newspaper through 1974. He then worked briefly as

156-481: A humorous guest column in The Philadelphia Inquirer about watching the birth of his son, which attracted the attention of Gene Weingarten , then an editor of the Miami Herald ' s Sunday magazine Tropic . Weingarten hired Barry as a humor columnist in 1983. Barry's column was syndicated nationally. Barry won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988 for "his consistently effective use of humor as

182-614: A large industry. Syndication properly took off in 1896 when the competitors the New York World and the New York Journal began producing Sunday comic pages. The daily comic strip came into practice in 1907, revolutionizing and expanding the syndication business. Syndicates began providing client newspaper with proof sheets of black-and-white line art for the reproduction of strips." By 1984, 300 syndicates were distributing 10,000 features with combined sales of $ 100 million

208-602: A much lesser cost than if the client were to purchase the material themselves. Generally, syndicates sell their material to one client in each territory. News agencies differ in that they distribute news articles to all interested parties. Typical syndicated features are advice columns (parenting, health, finance, gardening, cooking, etc.), humor columns , editorial opinion, critic 's reviews, and gossip columns . Some syndicates specialize in one type of feature, such as comic strips. A comic strip syndicate functions as an agent for cartoonists and comic strip creators, placing

234-679: A score of newspapers in the U.S. northeast. By the end of the Civil War, three syndicates were in operation, selling news items and short fiction pieces. By 1881, Associated Press correspondent Henry Villard was self-syndicating material to the Chicago Tribune , the Cincinnati Commercial , and the New York Herald . A few years later, the New York Sun ' s Charles A. Dana formed

260-546: A sense of humor as "a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge." Barry was born in Armonk, New York , where his father, David W. Barry, was a Presbyterian minister. He was educated at Wampus Elementary School, Harold C. Crittenden Junior High School (both in Armonk), and Pleasantville High School , where he

286-477: A syndicate to sell the short stories of Bret Harte and Henry James . The first full-fledged American newspaper syndicate was the McClure Newspaper Syndicate , launched in 1884 by publisher S. S. McClure . It was the first successful company of its kind, turning the marketing of columns , book serials (by the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Conan Doyle ), and eventually comic strips , into

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312-669: A year. With the 1960s advent of the underground press , associations like the Underground Press Syndicate , and later the Association of Alternative Newsmedia , worked together to syndicate material — including weekly comic strips — for each other's publications. Prominent contemporary syndication services include: IFA-Amsterdam (International Feature Agency) provides news and lifestyle content to publications. Cagle Cartoons offers newspaper editorial cartoons and columns. 3DSyndication comprises syndication service from India,

338-597: Is available on DVD. Barry married Lois Ann Shelnutt in 1969. He married Beth Lenox in 1976. Barry and Lenox worked together at the Daily Local News , where they began their journalism careers on the same day in September 1971; they had one child, Robert, born 1980. Barry and Lenox divorced in 1993. In 1996, Barry married Miami Herald sportswriter Michelle Kaufman ; they had a daughter, Sophie, in 2000. Barry's father and his youngest brother suffered from alcoholism , and his father died in 1984; his sister Mary Katherine

364-579: The September 11, 2001, attacks because the story involved terrorists smuggling a nuclear weapon onto an airplane. The film was released in April 2002. In response to a column in which Barry mocked the cities of Grand Forks, North Dakota , and East Grand Forks, Minnesota , for calling themselves the "Grand Cities", Grand Forks named a sewage pumping station after Barry in January 2002. Barry traveled to Grand Forks for

390-520: The Tribune Content Agency and The Washington Post Writers Group also in the running. Syndication of editorial cartoons has an important impact on the form, since cartoons about local issues or politicians are not of interest to the national market. Therefore, an artist who contracts with a syndicate will either be one who already focuses their work on national and global issues, or will shift focus accordingly. An early version of syndication

416-743: The Tropic Hunt (now the Herald Hunt), an annual puzzlehunt in Miami. A Washington, D.C. , spinoff, the Post Hunt , began in 2008. Barry has run several mock campaigns for President of the United States, running on a libertarian platform. He has also written for the Libertarian Party 's national newsletter. The screen adaptation of Barry's book Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys was released in 2005; it

442-448: The Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism . From 1993 to 1997, CBS broadcast the sitcom Dave's World based on the books Dave Barry Turns 40 and Dave Barry's Greatest Hits . The show starred Harry Anderson as Barry and DeLane Matthews as his wife Beth. In an early episode, Barry appeared in a cameo role. After four seasons, the program was canceled shortly after being moved from its "coveted" Monday night slot to

468-664: The " Friday night death slot ", so named because of its association with low viewership. During college, Barry was in a band called the Federal Duck (the band actually issued a self-titled album on Musicor Records in 1968, but Barry was no longer in the group by that point). While at the Miami Herald , he and several of his colleagues created a band called the Urban Professionals, with Barry on lead guitar and vocals. They performed an original song called "The Tupperware Song" at

494-569: The India Today Group's Syndications Today , and Times Syndication Service of India. Boating (magazine) Boating is an American enthusiast magazine published by Firecrown. The magazine was started in 1966 by Ziff Davis in Chicago, Illinois . This sports magazine or journal-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See tips for writing articles about magazines . Further suggestions might be found on

520-933: The Tupperware headquarters in Orlando, Florida . Beginning in 1992, Barry played lead guitar in the Rock Bottom Remainders , a rock band made up of published authors. ( Remainder is a publishing term for a book that doesn't sell.) The band was founded by Barry's sister-in-law, Kathi Kamen Goldmark , for an American Booksellers Association convention, and has also included Stephen King , Amy Tan , Ridley Pearson , Scott Turow , Mitch Albom , Roy Blount Jr. , Barbara Kingsolver , Matt Groening , and Barry's brother Sam , among others. The band's members "are not musically skilled, but they are extremely loud," according to Barry. Several high-profile musicians, including Al Kooper , Warren Zevon , and Roger McGuinn , have performed with

546-542: The band, and Bruce Springsteen sat in at least once. The band's road tour resulted in the book Mid-Life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude . The Rock Bottom Remainders disbanded in 2012 following Goldmark's death from breast cancer. They have reunited several times, performing at the Tucson Festival of Books in 2016 and 2018. Beginning in 1984, Barry and Tropic editors Gene Weingarten and Tom Shroder have organized

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572-418: The cartoons and strips in as many newspapers as possible on behalf of the artist. In some cases, the work will be owned by the syndicate as opposed to the creator. A syndicate can annually receive thousands of submissions from which only two or three might be selected for representation. The leading strip syndicates include Andrews McMeel Syndication , King Features Syndicate , and Creators Syndicate , with

598-580: The dedication ceremony. Articles written by Barry have appeared in publications such as Boating , Home Office Computing , and Reader's Digest , in addition to the Chicken Soup for the Soul inspirational book series. Two of his articles have been included in The Best American Sports Writing series. One of his columns was used as the introduction to the book Pirattitude!: So You Wanna Be

624-649: Was elected "Class Clown" in 1965. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Haverford College in 1969. As an alumnus of a Quaker -affiliated college, he avoided military service during the Vietnam War by registering as a religious conscientious objector . Barry decided "early on" that he was an atheist . He said, "The problem with writing about religion is that you run the risk of offending sincerely religious people, and then they come after you with machetes." Barry began his journalism career in 1971, working as

650-542: Was institutionalized for schizophrenia ; and his mother died by suicide in 1987. Barry has had dogs named Goldie, Earnest, Zippy, and now Lucy. All have been mentioned regularly in Barry's columns. Print syndication The syndicate is an agency that offers features from notable journalists and authorities as well as reliable and established cartoonists. It fills a need among smaller weekly and daily newspapers for material that helps them compete with large urban papers, at

676-596: Was practiced in the Journal of Occurrences , a series of newspaper articles published by an anonymous group of "patriots" in 1768–1769 in the New York Journal and Packet and other newspapers, chronicling the occupation of Boston by the British Army. According to historian Elmo Scott Watson , true print syndication began in 1841 with a two-page supplement produced by New York Sun publisher Moses Yale Beach and sold to

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