R.I.P. Jimmy Breslin

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Mister Tee
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R.I.P. Jimmy Breslin

Post by Mister Tee »

Jimmy Breslin covered so many areas that I wasn't even sure of the proper place to put this obituary -- film? politics? literary? simply "off-topic"? (he'd probably love that.) But I also wonder if some younger people even know who he is.

To many, he's probably the image of a New Yorker: brash and opinionated, parochial but fiercely lliberal-minded. He made his first big splash with a book about the hapless 1962 Mets -- a title many still recall: "Can't Anybody Here Play This Game"? He wrote a satire about the Mafia whose title has long outlived the book (and the pretty bad movie): The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. He wrote about Tip O'Neill's run as House Majority Leader during the Nixon impeachment: How the Good Guys Finally Won. He got an odd kind of notoriety when serial killer David Berkowitz -- the Son of Sam -- wrote letters to him that made both men famous.

He also ran for NY Mayor, covered every major issue of the past 50 years, and generally made himself a pain in the butt to every local politician. You couldn't find a New Yorker unfamiliar with him. Somebody'll win an Emmy someday playing him. A true original.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/19/busi ... uthor.html
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