Biography: Dave Barry

Born: July 3, 1947
Armonk, New York
Occupation: Humorist, Author
Website: http://www.davebarry.com

David Barry, Jr. (born July 3, 1947) is a bestselling American author and Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist who wrote a nationally syndicated column for the The Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005.

Biography

Barry was born in Armonk, New York, where his father, David Barry, Sr., was a Presbyterian minister. He was educated at Pleasantville High School, where he was elected class clown in 1965, and at Haverford College, where he played in Federal Duck (a student rock band) and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1969. As the son of a minister and an alumnus of a Quaker-affiliated college, Barry avoided military service during the Vietnam War by registering as a religious conscientious objector even though, as he declared in a 2001 interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, he had decided he "was an atheist early on."

His journalism career began as a reporter with the Daily Local News, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he "covered a series of incredibly dull municipal meetings, some of which are still going on." In 1975, Barry joined Burger Associates, a consulting firm. He taught effective writing to business people. In his own words, he "spent nearly eight years trying to get his students to stop writing things like `Enclosed please find the enclosed enclosures,' but... eventually realized that it was hopeless." In 1983, Barry was hired by Gene Weingarten as a humor columnist for the Miami Herald. Barry won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988, "for his consistently effective use of humor as a device for presenting fresh insights into serious concerns."

For a 1992 American Booksellers Association convention, several authors including Barry formed a band for charity: The Rock Bottom Remainders ("remainder" is a publishing term for a book that doesn't sell). The members of the band, which has at various times included Stephen King, Amy Tan, Ridley Pearson, Mitch Albom, Kathi Goldmark, Roy Blount Jr., Barbara Kingsolver and Matt Groening, "are not musically skilled, but they are extremely loud," according to Barry. The band's road tour resulted in the book Mid-Life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude, which is now out of print.

CBS broadcast the situation comedy Dave's World for four seasons, from 1993 to 1997, based on the books Dave Barry Turns 40 and Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, starring Harry Anderson as Barry, and DeLane Matthews as his wife, Beth. In an early episode, Barry was cast in a cameo role. The program was canceled shortly after being moved from Monday to the Friday night death slot.

Barry's first novel, Big Trouble, was made into a motion picture; directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, it starred Tim Allen, Rene Russo and Dave's World alum Patrick Warburton, with a cameo by Barry. The movie was originally due for release in late 2001, but was postponed shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks because the story involved smuggling a nuclear weapon onto an airplane.

Barry and his second wife, Beth, had one child, Robert, in 1980. The Barrys divorced in the mid-1990s. In 1996, Barry married Miami Herald sportswriter Michelle Kaufman; they had a daughter, Sophie, in 2000. All are mentioned regularly in Barry's columns, though his divorce was notably not discussed. Barry's initial meeting and courtship with Michelle were, however, widely thought to have been dramatized in an epilogue to his book Dave Barry in Cyberspace, but with names changed: Barry is cast as 'RayAdverb' (an anagram of 'Dave Barry'), and Michelle is represented as 'MsPtato'.

Articles written by Barry have appeared in publications such as Boating, Home Office Computing and Reader's Digest, in addition to the Chicken Soup for the Soul inspirational book series. One of his columns was used as the introduction to the book Pirattitude!: So You Wanna Be a Pirate? Here's How! (ISBN 0-451-21649-0).

When distinguishing fact from hyperbole, Barry frequently asserts: "I am not making this up." Among his favorite topics are exploding or flaming items (cows, whales, vacuum cleaners, toilets, Pop-Tarts, Barbie dolls, etc.), dogs lacking intelligence, live blogging the television series 24 and amusing government studies. He recently led the charge to save the Wiki exploding cow page, but other members of the Wiki community had that entry deleted. Barry also has libertarian political leanings [1]. He labels various posts on his blog with long abbreviations, such as OIYDWYMTTY(NY)G ("or if you don't want your mom to think you're (not your) gay") and WBAGNFARB ("would be a great name for a rock band", an observation Barry often applies to phrases that pop up in his writing, such as "Italic Squirrels"), no doubt poking fun at unnecessarily long internet abbreviations. Barry's website contains a fairly sizeable list of phrases that "would be a great name for a rock band".

Barry has defined a sense of humor as "a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge."

Barry helps organize the Herald Hunt, formerly the Tropic Hunt, an annual puzzlehunt in Miami.

On October 20, 2004, Dave Barry announced that he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence of at least a year from his weekly humor column with the Herald in order to spend more time with his family. He said that he would continue writing humor and children's books and working on filming the screen adaptation of his book, Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys, which was also made into a film in 2005; it premiered at several film festivals, to mediocre reviews, and is available on DVD, though a theatrical release seems unlikely. On December 28, 2005, Barry said in an interview with Editor and Publisher that he will not be resuming his weekly column, though he would continue some features such as his yearly gift guide, year in review, his weblog, as well as an occasional article or column.

Trivia

Since at least 1986, Dave Barry quotations have been included in many of the Unix fortune collections.

Dave Barry has a sewage pump substation named after him in Grand Forks, North Dakota. This event is documented in his book Boogers Are My Beat.

There is an obvious reference to Barry in the first level of the computer game Deus Ex. There the player can find and read a newspaper with a Barry-like editorial by a fictional columnist named “Dave Warry”.

In an episode of The Simpsons, Marge Simpson, stuck in traffic, refuses to change lanes, saying that “once I move to the other lane, this one will start moving. Erma Bombeck says so and Dave Barry agrees.”

In an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a man is seen running through the rain with a newspaper over his head as a makeshift umbrella. Crow T. Robot observes "He's going to get Dave Barry all over his head."

At the suggestion of Justice John Paul Stevens, Barry once wrote a column on the antiflatulence product Beano.[1]

Barry once picked up his son Rob from Junior High School while driving the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

Works

Films

Big Trouble (2002)
Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys (2005)

Fiction

Big Trouble (1999)
Tricky Business (2002)
Peter and the Starcatchers (2004, with Ridley Pearson)
Peter and the Shadow Thieves (2006, with Ridley Pearson) ISBN 0-7868-3787-X
Escape From the Carnivale (2006, with Ridley Pearson) ISBN 078683789-6
The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog (2006)

Non-fiction

The Taming of the Screw (1983)
Babies and Other Hazards of Sex: How to Make a Tiny Person in Only 9 Months With Tools You Probably Have Around the Home (1984)
Stay Fit and Healthy Until You're Dead (1985)
Claw Your Way to the Top: How to Become the Head of a Major Corporation in Roughly a Week (1986)
Dave Barry's Guide to Marriage and/or Sex (1987)
Homes and Other Black Holes (1988)
Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States (1989)
Dave Barry Turns 40 (1990)
Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need (1991)
Dave Barry's Guide to Life(1991) includes Dave Barry's Guide to Marriage and/or Sex, Babies and Other Hazards of Sex, The Taming of the Screw and Claw Your Way to the Top
Dave Barry Does Japan (1992)
Dave Barry's Gift Guide to End All Gift Guides (1994)
Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys (1996)
Dave Barry in Cyberspace (1996)
Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs (1997)
Dave Barry Turns 50 (1998)
Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway: A Vicious and Unprovoked Attack on Our Most Cherished Political Institutions (2001)
"My Teenage Son's Goal in Life is to Make Me Feel 3,500 Years Old" and Other Thoughts On Parenting From Dave Barry (2001)
"The Greatest Invention In The History Of Mankind Is Beer" And Other Manly Insights From Dave Barry (2001)
Dave Barry's Money Secrets (2006)

Collected columns

Dave Barry's Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-Free Book (1987)
Dave Barry's Greatest Hits (1988)
Dave Barry Talks Back (1991)
The World According to Dave Barry (1994) includes Dave Barry Talks Back and Dave Barry's Greatest Hits
Dave Barry is NOT Making This Up (1995)
Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus (1997)
Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down (2000)
Dave Barry: Boogers Are My Beat (2003)

Collaborations

Mid-Life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America With Three Chords and an Attitude (1994) with Stephen King, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Al Kooper, Ridley Pearson, Roy Blount, Jr., Joel Selvin, Amy Tan, Dave Marsh, Tad Bartimus, Matt Groening, Greil Marcus, Tabitha King, Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Dorris
Naked Came the Manatee (1998) with Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, James W. Hall, Edna Buchanan, Les Standiford, Paul Levine, Brian Antoni, Tananarive Due, John Dufresne, Vicki Hendricks, Carolina Hospital, Evelyn Mayerson

Audio recordings

A Totally Random Evening With Dave Barry (1992)