Johngy in Print

As my faithful readers (and aren't you all faithful readers?) know, in a past professional life, I worked for Lerner Newspapers. Towards the end of my glorious 17+ year run there and under the Editorial tutelage of an offbeat (but extremely wise) Managing Editor (Laurie), I occasionally contributed a guest column.
A few days ago, I wrote about Lanny Poffo's first book, Wrestling with Rhyme. It was actually Poffo's second book, Limericks from the Heart (and Lungs) which lead to an interview and subsequent article about him and the book.
I wrote to Poffo and asked him if he would appear in our ad series promoting literacy. Poffo agreed and even wrote one of his famous poems for the ad. He also gave me an hour long interview about his life and the book.
Poffo is a native of the Chicago area (Downers Grove) and is still well-known in this area. The article received an excellent response from our readers. Laurie knew her readers and trusted (and helped) me to write a good piece.
I am very proud of this article. I talked to Poffo and his father Angelo shortly after the piece ran and both were very happy with it as well. I was speechless. Here I was talking to two wrestling legends and they were thanking me for writing a good piece. It doesn't get much better than that.

My guest column on Lanny Poffo from the Lerner Times-September 4, 2004.