Check out Oldster today!
Featuring my good friend and sterling fellow Jon Carroll.
I’m thrilled to share today’s
Q&A, whose subject is my longtime friend (and two-time colleague) Jon Carroll.I’ve known Jon and his wife, writer/photographer Tracy Johnston, for a very long time. Some of you may know him, too, from his more than three decades as a fourfive-days-a-week columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Others with even longer memories will recall his tenure as the editor-in-chief of New West magazine (where I held a much less exalted position) and as a writer for the San Francisco Examiner (ditto).
When Jon retired from the Chronicle in 2015 he went on the record as saying retirement was “a really great life.” But it hasn’t been all kittens and roses. He’s lived with Type 2 diabetes for many years, and several years ago was diagnosed with macular degeneration. He’s gradually going blind, which means he no longer can read or write, although he is coping admirably with the aid of various adaptive technologies.
So when Oldster editor
said she wanted to publish an interview with Jon, I raised my hand and offered to serve as his amanuensis. That meant several visits to his charming Craftsman house, two freeway exits from my own Oakland abode, and scribbling furiously while Jon talked, something Jon is extremely good at. I then compiled and polished and returned for Jon’s final changes. Tracy forwarded photos and caption material.Read the published questionnaire.
And if you’re in the Bay Area on July 2, you can see Jon in person! He’ll be at Green Apple Books in San Francisco, conducting his own Q&A with new author Joanna Sokol, who has published what sounds like a terrific book, A Real Emergency: Tales from the Ambulance, about her experiences as an EMT and paramedic. Joanna is the daughter of Cynthia Gorney, a journalism-school classmate of mine and an extraordinary writer in her own right. I hope you can make it; I’d love to meet or reunite with you.
Joanna Sokol and Jon Carroll
A Real Emergency: Tales from the Ambulance
Green Apple Books
1231 9th Avenue, San Francisco
7 p.m., July 2
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I always wished I were more like Jon Carroll—to have the energy, the drive to go all those places, change from one absorbing job to another. The discipline, the skill, the hard, grinding work to produce every day a column, rich in narrative, disparate subjects, and humor. I especially enjoyed his thoughts on mondegreens and cats.
And, no small thing, he would always reply to any comment or question I had. For me, some insight to his character. The world is a better place with Jon Carroll in it.
Nice piece.
As I say to my children, "I'd like to thank Current Events for taking some of the sting out of the prospect of dying."