I Wrote

Soon after Gwendolyn Brooks won the 1943 Midwestern Conference Poetry Award, Harper and Brothers accepted an unsolicited manuscript of her poems.The editors suggested, however, that the collection be expanded, particularly to include a long poem that would exhibit more of the personal feeling of the author. ''Take your time,'' they said.''But I would not take my time,'' Ms. Brooks remembers. ''They might forget me in the suggested two years -- in a year. I folded myself into my kitchenette.

IN A COLUMN on Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf's chances of winning high political office (not good), I said John McCain was "the Senate's only military careerist."Braxton D. Mitchell of Ruxton wrote to ask, "What about John Glenn? Col. Glenn served with distinction in and retired honorably from the U.S. Marine Corps." That's right. Ohio's Senator Glenn was a Marine for 23 years, a year longer than Arizona's Senator McCain was in the Navy.About the same column, Emil Weiss of Las Vegas, who described himself as "a died in the wool Republican," wrote to assert that "General Eisenhower was not necessarily an outstanding president.

I WROTE THAT I hadn't seen a good liberal magazine of ideaslately. I got a letter signed only "A Nation and Lippman reader" saying that that magazine was one, and "since you appear to be more open-minded than the rest of the Sterne gang, a subscription will follow."The magazine has started coming in. I am enjoying getting re-acquainted with Navasky, Trillin and the rest after many years. I admire their work, but I have to tell my anonymous benefactor that when it comes to open-mindedness, appearances can be deceiving.

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. I've been trying to entertain newspaper readers since the '60s, when I wrote "humor" columns for the Haverford College News. I put "humor" in quotation marks because when I go back and read those columns today, I don't get any of the jokes. But at the time they were a big hit with my readership, which consisted pretty much of my roommates.

When it comes to the politics of vice presidential choices, I wrote the book. In fact I wrote two books. Well, make that one and a half.In 1968, I spent 10 weeks as a reporter for The Sun covering the campaign of Democratic vice presidential candidate Edmund Muskie. I took two short leaves from that assignment to cover the vice presidential campaign of the Republican candidate, Spiro T. Agnew, while The Sun man assigned to the Agnew campaign, Gene Oishi, came onto the Muskie plane.Subsequently I wrote biographies of both men. "Muskie," written in collaboration with Portland Press Herald political editor Don Hansen, came out in 1971.

"DON'T KNOW much about geopolitics," I wrote about the Balkans, "but I have lots of dictionaries at my disposal, and what is going on in Bosnia is not genocide."Morton Winston of Columbia replied, "The dictionary only gives lexical definitions."The correct place to look for a definition of the term 'genocide' is in the text of the Convention and Punishment for the Crime of Genocide, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on Dec. 9, 1948, entered into force as international law on Jan. 12, 1961, and was ratified by the U.S. Senate on Feb. 19, 1986.

Steve Christian is being framed for murder and he must find the true culprit before he has to serve the time.This is the plot of "Justified," a new book written by Pasadena resident Bradley Jenkins."

I WROTE THAT the editorial writer who composed the "Yes, Virginia" editorial probably resented being given that chore.Lucille Ferrari of E. Rochester, N.Y., complained that I took an editorial "conveying love and joy" and "destroyed it and turned it into something sour and ugly." She has a point. At the very least my timing was bad. The column appeared in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on Christmas day.Wells Mears of Baltimore noted that I called that editorial "the most famous and enduring ever," and asked if I knew anything about the most enduring letter to the editor ever.

Nineteen years ago this month, I wrote my first column for The Sun. Cal Ripken Jr. had played in something like 800 straight games. Art Modell's football team had almost another decade to go in Cleveland. I wrote more than 2,500 columns after that first one, covering every sport from baseball to football to, well, ice dancing and cross country skiing. This is the end of the line. I'm leaving The Sun. I had more fun than anyone deserves to have with any job. My bosses sent me to 10 countries and 36 of the 50 states.

Connie and Nancy, my best friends since the seventh grade." That's how I have always introduced them, or told stories about them. The same identifying phrase. "My best friends since the seventh grade." Connie and Nancy, my best friends since the seventh grade, and I are on what we have begun to call our Wedding Tour. Though we have tried to get together every year or so for a girls' weekend away, our children are now providing that opportunity for us with their weddings.