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Gene Weingarten (born on October 2 1951 in New York) is a humor writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. 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" 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."

He used to live in Bethesda, Maryland. Since 2001 he has lived in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. He has two children, Molly (1981) and Dan (1984). He has been married for 26 years to a prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice.

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.

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." He claimed credit again in 2001, writing, "he Style Invitational, which I edit."

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

Common topics in his online chat include the art of comic strips, analysis of humor, politics, philosophy, medicine, and gender differences. 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" 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.

In fall of 2008, Weingarten published Old Dogs: Are the Best Dogs in collaboration with photographer Michael S. Williamson. Together they profiled and photographed 63 dogs between the ages of 10 and 17 years old over the course of two and a half years. In response to the inevitable question of which dogs remained alive, Weingarten has asserted that the answer will always be "All of them.". Weingarten's inspiration for Old Dogs came shortly after the death of his dog, Harry S. Truman, who is also featured in the book.

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
• Old Dogs: Are the Best Dogs (2008), ISBN 978-1416534990, Michael S. Williamson (Photographer)

See also

• Dave Barry
• Joel Achenbach
• Gina Barreca
• Googlewhack

References

1. Weingarten, Gene (August 20, 2002). "Funny? You Should Ask". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-04-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. "Pearls Before Breakfast" in the Washington Post
3. Weingarten, Gene (May 20, 2003). "Funny? You Should Ask". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-04-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. Chatological Humor from WashingtonPost.com
5. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/07/26/DI2005072601470.html Molly and Dan take over Gene's online chat
6. If You Go Chasing Rabbits . . .
7. Pulitzer Prize Winner - Florida Newspapers from University of Florida (PDF)
8. Memo: A Home Team Name Game
9. Not Funny: The Rules of Humor Changed on Sept. 11 - washingtonpost.com
10. "Pearls Before Breakfast" in the Washington Post
11. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/09/30/DI2008093001758.html
12. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092602860.html

External links

• The Peekaboo Paradox
• Follow-up chat about the Peekaboo Paradox
• Snowbound
• Below The Beltway
• Chatological Humor
• Just the FAQs: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding Universe Known as Chatological Humor
• Gene's Critique of the Washington Post
• Q&A: Gene Weingarten
• Zero-Based Journalism - You can find just about anything on Google. Except this.
• Nope, Yup, Nope, Yup

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