Newspaperman Gets Serious
Some old-timers complain that kids in the news business today have no soul. We hope they’re wrong, but here’s what they mean: journalism is no longer a haven for eccentrics; for inquisitive bohemians in shiny pants with minds full of odd lore. Bohemians, we would add, who have learned to squint at existence with a generous but ironic common sense. And who, we’ll further add, focusing on Dan Tucker, have mastered seven or eight languages and compose music of distinction.
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“He himself was never really outrageous,” said a onetime colleague, “but you knew there was a secret place inside him that was really mad. The editorial page was a place for him to be whimsical, thoughtful, and informed. And he never carried anything home with him. He’s a guy who always did what was expected of him at the paper, but you never had the feeling he was anything but his own man.”
The middle brother, Barney, was an American reporter before going into public relations. Ernest Tucker’s son Ernie is a feature writer today at the Sun-Times.
We supposed there is not much money waiting to be made by composers of new classical music, not even when the music is as good as Tucker’s. “No, not a hell of a lot,” Tucker acknowledged. “In ’86 I cleared a cool eight dollars–and was it 14 or 40 cents? But last year I was paid $310 for a hymn I wrote and sold outright.”
One appeal came from “a proven and award-winning” publication by the name of Gifted Children Monthly. “Frankly,” says the letter from the “chairman” (journals of this distinction don’t settle for mere editors or publishers), “it would be easier on you if your child weren’t gifted, but that special satisfaction that parents like you know would be lost.”
