a rich hofmann interview

Some outfit called sportsmediaguide.com has posted an interview with Rich Hofmann of the Philadelphia Daily News that's quite interesting, at least to me. Hofmann's a great writer and an even greater guy to have a beer (or six) with. Money quote:

Everybody has a different standard for [what makes a successful column]. I have to like it, on some visceral level. To me, that's the standard, always. I know there are website hits and some columns generate more than others, and people talk about your stuff on the radio. But to me I have to like it. Generally, there has to be an idea in there I really like. Short of that, turn a phrase or two I really like. Sometimes it's a simple as me being the only one in town who knows I wrote in 32 minutes on deadline. And I'll say, 'not bad for 32 minutes'. Those are the things I look at.

Then there's this:

I caught [Dick Young's] act at the end. I'll never forget seeing him at an Ali fight. He wore a headset and dictated round-by-round. He was fascinating to watch -- barking into the headset, 'a left and a big overhand right, oh, he's down'. I imagined the guy in his office, typing furiously, graf after graf, sending out an edition with half the fight done. Those were newspapers. I remember getting the News on the lawn and it would say 'after four innings the Mets were ahead, 4-3'. Or, 'Yanks and Senators go into extra innings'. I laugh at it now.

Now that's cool. Check out the entire Q&A here.