Commentary Update for October 24, 2001: Lou O'Malley
On this week's Commentary program I praise guest Lou O'Malley's Green Bay
Press Gazette column several times. Today a letter (see below) appeared
in the Green Bay Press Gazette expressing a different view. Here's the link
to the O'Malley column that the letter writer is responding to:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/opinion_1330176.shtml
Reader doesnt like OMalleys column
GREEN BAY I just finished reading another column (Burger King exercise
a whopper) from Lou
OMalley, the brilliant law student; the heroic ex-Marine; the hearty ex-utility
worker; the blue
collar stud; the descendant of the old sod; the parent-hall-of-fame father;
and the
Harvard-educated charity worker par excellence.
Hey, I actually admire the guy for his accomplishments. But why does the Press-Gazette
give
anyone a column whose main theme seems to be Aw, shucks, aint I
great? If you carefully
read his past columns, youll find the eventual core of each to be a quick
self-description by
OMalley of his hugely macho, oh-so-intelligent, curmudgeonly-wonderful
50-plus years of
service to mankind.
Why does it always have to be about you, Lou?
In the Burger King column, OMalleys phantom subject is an ill-conceived
attempt by BK to put
its managers through a team-building retreat that included employees walking
on hot coals.
OMalley cleverly worked in his usual paean to himself: Excuse me,
Lou. You volunteered for
the Marines. You spent decades climbing utility poles in sub-zero weather, and
you broke the
occasional bone doing it
Blah, blah.
Maybe its just me, but I seem to find one of these self-reverential
references in every column
he deigns to bestow upon us.
Tim Blaser