Q&A with Ron Cohen

 

 

 

Ron Cohen is the author of the new memoir Millie's Last Meatball: A Journalist's (2nd) Uncommon Memoir. His other books include the memoir Of Course You Can Have Ice Cream for Breakfast!. Over his long career in journalism, he was managing editor of United Press International and executive editor of Gannett News Service. He lives in the Washington, D.C., area.

 

Q: What inspired you to write this new memoir?

 

A: The public response to Of Course You Can Have Ice Cream for Breakfast! A Journalist's Uncommon Memoir, published in 2017, was quite heartening. Dozens of five-star Amazon reviews from friends, family, and strangers made me wonder why I had waited so long to tackle such a personal project.

 

All my 43 professional years had been constricted by daily journalism's traditional focus on "The 5 W's" -- the basic "Who, What, When, Where, and Why" of a news story. So writing Ice Cream liberated my "voice," allowing me flights of freedom rarely available in daily journalism. And boy, it felt great!

 

I long pondered whether I had enough stories in my memory bank to sustain a sequel -- and whether anyone would care. A second bite of the memoir apple seemed a little pretentious for someone who isn't exactly a household name.

 

But I received considerable encouragement from fans of Ice Cream, and I had left a few chapters on the cutting room floor. So, after my pondering five years, the four-year gestation of Millie's Last Meatball began. And, to my delight, it was just as much fun the second time around.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen?

 

A: My original working title was "Of Course You Should Triple the Garlic! A Journalist's Second Uncommon Memoir," continuing the "Of Course" conceit.

 

It wasn't until just a few months before publication that my daughters, Zen and Rachel, recalled that on the night my mom died the immediate family was sitting in her living room in Nutley, New Jersey, reminiscing about this powerful, wonderful woman, when we grew hungry and discovered one lone meatball in her fridge.

 

Neither my wife nor my sister nor I remembered that meatball, but the girls swore it had happened -- although their versions differed slightly. Thus was "Millie's Last Meatball" born.

 

What made all this particularly dear to my heart is that Zen, the younger sister, designed the striking cover and wrote what I think is a magnificent "Foreword"; and Rachel, who was editor of her college newspaper at the University of Wisconsin, copy-edited the manuscript and contributed a beautiful "Afterword" remembrance of Millie.

 

Q: Of all the various characters you’ve met over the years, are there one or two that especially stand out for you?

 

A: Ed Asner, Raquel Welch, Lucien Carr, Joseph Heller, Arnie Sawislak, Rabbi Avraham Soltes, Mitzi Gaynor, Rose Elizabeth Bird are a few of the fascinating people I have met professionally and personally.

 

Some became close friends, others disappeared from my life as swiftly as they had entered. All of them really stand out -- and all for different reasons, in different ways. The good news is that my readers also can meet them; they appear front and center in Ice Cream and Millie's Last Meatball.

 

Q: As a longtime D.C.-based journalist, what do you think of today's political news, and what do you see looking ahead?

 

A: Given what's happening in America and the rest of the world these days, I'm really glad to be a retired journalist with other, less aggravating, things to occupy my mind.

 

For decades, national politics and the peregrinations of official Washington consumed almost all my waking hours. I enjoyed what I did and can happily say I believe I did it quite well. But journalism is a far different creature these days.

 

When I was a top editor calling the shots for United Press International and Gannett News Service, respectively, politicians had fierce differences but didn't automatically consider "enemies" those who disagreed.

 

The political atmosphere now has been poisoned by fetid partisanship that prevents meaningful accomplishments, to the manifest detriment of the country -- and even, perhaps, our democracy.

 

Political leaders spread lies wantonly; journalistic institutions that dare question these liars and their lies are pilloried and punished and rendered ineffectual.

 

We used to occasionally disagree with the direction of an administration and the occupant of the White House, and felt it our right and obligation to say so. Now the bully pulpit has a bully like none before him, and he revels in browbeating the media. He is rendering moot the First Amendment's guarantee of a free and unfettered press.

 

Hundreds of community newspapers have disappeared over the last few years, freeing politicians to act on their worst impulses. And the fact most people get their "news" from biased and unreliable social media sites makes me feel a profound sadness at the neutering of my beloved profession.

 

So yes, I am delighted to be retired. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I'm still winding down from Millie's Last Meatball, so I've set writing aside for now in hopes of catching up on reading I've neglected too long. Novels and poetry got short shrift the many years I had to concentrate, for work and career, on nonfiction. I am trying to rectify that.

 

A few people have suggested another memoir, but if two volumes might constitute wretched self-indulgence imagine the approbation a third might fetch. So, most probably no.

 

But writing can help keep the brain from atrophying, and I still have stories and opinions to foist on an unwitting public. And that should help scratch my perpetual writing itch.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Try to lay your hands on a copy of MLM, available via Amazon. Bet you'll find it's fun.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Ron Cohen.