Voting Station

Calvin Trillin

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Commentator

The Resume

    (December 5, 1935- )
    Born in Kansas City, Missouri
    Journalist/humorist/food writer
    Columnist for 'The Nation' (1978- )
    Wrote the books 'An Education in Georgia' (1968), 'American Fried: Adventures of a Happy Eater' (1974), 'Alice, Let's Eat: Further Adventures of a Happy Eater' (1978), 'Uncivil Liberties' (1981), 'Third Helpings' (1982), 'With All Disrespect' (1985), 'If You Can't Say Something Nice' (1987), 'Travels with Alice' (1989), 'American Stories' (1991), 'Remembering Denny' (1993), 'Deadline Poet: My Life as a Doggerelist' (1994), 'Messages from My Father' (1996), 'Family Man' (1998), 'Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme' (2004), 'A Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme' (2006), 'About Alice' (2006) and 'Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin' (2011)

Why he might be annoying:

    He said growing up in a Jewish family in the Midwest was 'like being in an episode of the Brady Bunch as played by actors who just got off a year-long tour of Fiddler on the Roof.'
    During an early stint at Time, he tried to get out of covering religion by inserting 'allegedly' before Biblical events such as the parting of the Red Sea or the resurrection.
    He was a speechwriter for President Lyndon B. Johnson, but said that LBJ never used anything he wrote.
    He stopped writing about food for a couple of decades because people kept asking him for restaurant recommendations that he did not feel qualified to give. ('I don't know anything about food.... The pieces I do about food are, to me, only interesting in that they're connected to American life.')

Why he might not be annoying:

    Time called him 'part of that small, infuriating group of people who can write well about anything.'
    The New York Times wrote, 'Mark Twain, Robert Benchley and Perelman are dead, but Calvin Trillin is right there with the post-funeral cocktail to assure us that life goes on.'
    He said the best thing to happen to American cuisine was the Immigration Act of 1965, which greatly increased the number of Asian-Americans.
    Asked if any subject was taboo for humor, he replied, 'Not really. It's self-selecting. You know whether you can make a joke about something because otherwise it wouldn't be funny.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 8 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 7 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 18 Votes: 61.11% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying