My Pal Doug Baker
June 30, 2024
Here is everything I have ever written about one of my childhood idols, Oregon Journal city columnist Doug Baker.
...
This column/blog has evolved into a combination of diary for my family and me and bulletin board for my clever friends--in short, a personal column. Like, but not as good as, former San Francisco Chronicle columnists Adair Lara or Jon Carroll. Or Doug Baker of the Oregon Journal. Or, to take a national example, former New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen, considered the mother of the personal column concept (even though Stanton Delaplane and Charles McCabe of the San Francisco Chronicle actually beat her to it--but of course, if it hasn't happened in New York, it hasn't happened)
…
Jon Carroll of the SF Chronicle (now retired) was the finest daily column writer ever to grace an American newspaper, although Adair Lara of the Chronicle and Doug Baker of the Oregon Journal were almost as good. He regularly wrote columns about his cats, which I have mentioned frequently in this column.
…
Doug Baker invited me into the Feinschmecker Society, a black-tie dining club. At that point, I bought a used tuxedo at Goodwill. Doug wore a 30-year-old tuxedo to the dinners. At the time I thought it was eccentric.
…
In his later years, Doug let his legman, Spencer Heinz, fill in for him while Doug took off for a cabin in Kalama, Wash. he called “The River Place” for a long weekend. That also meant he missed his daily talk show, which originated in the lobby of Portland’s Heathman Hotel. He had me fill in for him, which was a delight, because Dave Jack, the manager of KLIQ, had to swallow and take it… a few years after he had unceremoniously booted me off his air.
Comments