Gene Weingarten

Gene Weingarten (born on October 2 1951 in New York) is a humor writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. [cite web |url= http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/liveonline/02/weingarten/weingarten082002.htm |title= Funny? You Should Ask |first= Gene |last= Weingarten |work= The Washington Post |date= August 20, 2002 |accessdate= 2008-04-06] His column, "Below the Beltway", is published weekly in the Washington Post Magazine and syndicated nationally by The Washington Post Writers Group. Weingarten attended the Bronx High School of Science and New York University; he was a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University in 1987-1988. On April 7, 2008, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, for his story "Pearls Before Breakfast" [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html "Pearls Before Breakfast" in the Washington Post] ] which appeared in the "Washington Post".

Biography

"I majored in psychology, but only because it was the easiest major," is Weingarten's description of his undergraduate college career at New York University. "I spent all my time as editor of the daily newspaper, and then dropped out with three credits to go, nearly killing my mother." [cite web |url= http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/03/r_style_weingarten052003.htm |title= Funny? You Should Ask |first= Gene |last= Weingarten |work= The Washington Post |date= May 20, 2003 |accessdate= 2008-04-06] He dropped out to spend months with a Puerto Rican street gang in New York; this resulted in a cover story for "New York Magazine", which launched his career.

Weingarten is a fan of the Washington Nationals and New York Yankees baseball teams. He is also an amateur expert on mechanical clocks. His last name, roughly translated from German to English, means: Wine Garden.

He used to live in Bethesda, Maryland. Since 2001 he has lived in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/01/25/DI2006012500622.html?nav=left Chatological Humor] from WashingtonPost.com] He has two children, Molly (1981) and Dan (1984). [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/07/26/DI2005072601470.html Molly and Dan take over Gene's online chat] He has been married for 26 years to a prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47809-2001Feb9_2.html] If You Go Chasing Rabbits . . . ]

Career

Weingarten served as the editor of the "Miami Herald"'s Sunday magazine, "Tropic", from 1985 to 1990. Perhaps his best-known professional accomplishment is hiring Dave Barry, thus giving one of America's best known humor columnists his big break. Tropic won two Pulitzer Prizes, including Barry's, during Weingarten's tenure. [ [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/jour/fljhist/full/pulitzers.pdf Pulitzer Prize Winner - Florida Newspapers] from University of Florida (PDF)]

Weingarten is believed to have created and edited the Style Invitational humor contest for the "Washington Post". He often denied his connection to the Invitational, using the pseudonym "The Czar." However, Weingarten admitted responsibility in 1999, writing, "I run a reader-participation contest every Sunday in The Post. It is called The Style Invitational." [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111500459_pf.html Memo: A Home Team Name Game ] ] He claimed credit again in 2001, writing, " [T] he Style Invitational, which I edit." [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/11/AR2007091100695_pf.html Not Funny: The Rules of Humor Changed on Sept. 11 - washingtonpost.com ] ]

He hosts, as of 2008, one of the most popular Washington Post online chats, called "Chatological Humor, aka Tuesdays with Moron"Fact|date=March 2008.

Common topics in his online chat include the art of comic strips, analysis of humor, politics, philosophy, medicine, gender differences, and human excretory functions. Many of his columns addressing gender differences have been written in a he-said she-said style in collaboration with humorist Gina Barreca, his co-author for "I'm with Stupid." Weingarten writes that humor quality is objective, not subjective, and claims to be the final arbiter on the subject. A hypochondriac until a near-fatal infection with Hepatitis C, he is familiar with a wide range of medical conditions as a result of writing "The Hypochondriac's Guide To Life. And Death."

In 2008 Weingarten won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his story "Pearls Before Breakfast" [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html "Pearls Before Breakfast" in the Washington Post] ] in which he convinced renowned violinist Joshua Bell to perform in a Washington Metro station during the morning commute; Bell was almost unrecognized and few people stopped to listen to a performance from a world-class violinist.

Bibliography

*"I'm With Stupid" (2004), ISBN 0-7432-4420-6, co-written with Gina Barreca
*"The Hypochondriac's Guide To Life. And Death" (1998), ISBN 0-684-85648-4

ee also

*Dave Barry
*Joel Achenbach
*Gina Barreca
*Googlewhack

References

External links

* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011801434.html The Peekaboo Paradox]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/01/19/DI2006011902464.html Follow-up chat about the Peekaboo Paradox]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042601144.html Snowbound]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/03/25/LI2005032501927.html Below The Beltway]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/03/24/LI2005032401870.html Chatological Humor]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/05/AR2005120501314.html Just the FAQs: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding Universe Known as Chatological Humor]
* [http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/newspapers/post_is_suffering_a_failure_of_imagination_27889.asp Gene's Critique of the Washington Post]
* [http://www.yurasko.net/wfy/2007/01/qa-gene-weingarten.html Q&A: Gene Weingarten]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/23/AR2007052301290.html Zero-Based Journalism - You can find just about anything on Google. Except this.]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/01/AR2007080101708.html Nope, Yup, Nope, Yup]