[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 16, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1479-E1480]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONGRATULATING CHARLIE DANIEL
______
HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.
of tennessee
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, one of the finest men I know, Charlie
Daniel, has now completed 5 years as a newspaper editorial cartoonist
in my hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.
Charlie is one of Knoxville's most popular and respected citizens.
Almost every morning for all these years, people in East Tennessee have
been inspired or made angry by, or perhaps simply have laughed at one
of his cartoons.
He has certainly helped bring about better government through his
work, but the laughter is all right, too. There is not enough good
humor in the political process today.
I have one of his cartoons hanging in my Knoxville office and two are
on the wall of my home. I have many favorites among his work, but I
will give just two examples.
The first showed a father reading a newspaper with the headline
``Americans Hire Illegals to Do Work They Don't Want to Do.'' Then it
showed a little boy with his arm around an obviously Hispanic little
boy, with the first boy saying, ``I hired Juan to do my homework.''
The second showed a man with a clipboard standing at the front door
of the home of a very angry man who said, ``Well it's about time
someone came to ask my opinion,'' and the man with the clipboard said,
``Sir, I'm just here to read your meter.''
Charlie worked from 1958 until the early 1990s at the Knoxville
Journal, which for most of its history was our morning daily newspaper.
When the Journal closed, he began to work for the Knoxville News
Sentinel where he remains today.
I worked at the Journal in 1968 and 1969, hired by the longtime
editor, Guy Smith, who also was the man who hired Charlie.
The Journal in those days gave titles easier than they gave money,
and I was the Assistant State Editor, working under a woman named
Juanita Glenn.
Last year I was interviewed in my Washington office by a reporter for
the Wall Street Journal. As we walked out, I told her I had once been
Assistant State Editor for the Knoxville Journal. I didn't tell her
that among my duties were the TV logs and the obituaries.
The Journal newsroom in those days had the most colorful cast of
characters I have ever been around.
The corner of my desk touched the desk of Dick Evans, the morning
editor and a great journalist. I will never forget how he slammed down
his phone after every phone call, no matter whether it was a good call
or bad.
Others who I remember so well who worked at the Journal besides
Charlie, were Steve Humphrey, Tom Sweeten, Byron Drinnon, Bill Vaughan,
Sam Venable, Dudley Brewer, Pat Fields, Bob Adams, Bill Bolus, Jim
Skelton, Ben Byrd, Russ Bebb, Ted Griffith, Al Roberts, Hugh Lunsford,
Tom Greene, Doug Price, Raymond Flowers, and Margie Trent.
Ron McMahan, Ralph Griffith, and Margaret Underwood, all of whom I
knew very well, had left before I worked at the Journal to work in
Washington for Senator Howard Baker. One of my longtime best friends,
Bill Vaughan, later left to work for Congressman Jimmy Quillen, and
even Dick Evans left to work for the Department of Commerce.
A few days ago, Sam Venable, now a longtime columnist for the
Knoxville News Sentinel and also a former Journal employee, wrote a
wonderful column in tribute to Charlie.
I would like to congratulate Charlie on 50 great years in the news
business and also thank him for his service to our community in many
ways.
Madam Speaker, in closing, I would request that the Sam Venable
column about Charlie Daniel be reprinted in the Record at this point,
and I would like to call it to the attention of my colleagues and other
readers of the Record.
50 Years and Still on the Job
(By Sam Venable)
One of the most poignant cartoons Charlie Daniel ever
produced wasn't a drawing at all.
It ran on the editorial page of the old Knoxville Journal
on Saturday, Nov. 23, 1968, two days after the death of the
newspaper's legendary editor.
``Today I find my limited talents fall far too short of
paying proper tribute to Guy L. Smith--a great man,'' Daniel
wrote in his signature block letters. ``I shall miss his
insight, his leadership and his humor--but most of all I
shall miss the man who gave me the opportunity to fill this
space each day.''
That was the first and only time Charlie found himself at a
loss for an image. Pretty decent statement about a 50-year
career that has produced an estimated 15,000 cartoons and
four books.
``I really was stymied,'' Charlie recalled of that moment
four decades ago. ``It was very personal for me. Here was the
guy who gave me my shot at a time when newspaper editorial
cartooning was at a low point.''
Alas, the cycle has come around to an even lower ebb.
Charlie, who joined the News Sentinel staff after the
Journal's closure in 1992, is one of only 80 newspaper
editorial cartoonists working in America today. Theirs never
was a populous force, but at the craft's peak in the 1960s
and '70s, nearly 300 were using their skills to poke, prod,
tweak and guide the nation's conscience. Usually with a
laugh.
Fortunately for readers of the News Sentinel, this 78-year-
old treasure has no intention of setting his pens aside.
``I'll stay as long as the light bulb comes on,'' Charlie
laughed. ``I have no hobbies. I don't fish or paint or play
golf. If I retired, I'd just go home and bug Patsy (his wife
of 54 years). We have trouble making it through a weekend.''
You'll soon be reading, seeing and hearing a lot about
Charlie Daniel. The News Sentinel is celebrating his golden
anniversary this month in a variety of ways.
In next Sunday's Life and Arts section, staff writer Amy
McRary will profile the life of her fellow Tar Heel. On the
same day, our Perspective pages will showcase some of his
classics.
Readers are invited to join the festivities as well. A
display of Daniel drawings through the years graces our lobby
at 2332 News Sentinel Drive, just off Western Avenue. It'll
be open to the public 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday through
September.
As one of the few journalists who served with Charlie at
both the Journal and News Sentinel, I'm qualified to propose
Daniel trivia. Such as:
--Why is the plaque he won for highway safety awareness
inscribed to ``I. Daniel''?
(Because he used to put a double descender on the ``D'' on
his tag line, and it looked like an ``I.'' To keep from
embarrassing the highway officials, he really should have
changed his name to Ignatius.)
--What was the ghastly mixture of pipe tobacco he used to
fog the Journal newsroom with before kicking his smoking
habit?
(Half-and-half and some fancy-smancy aromatic blend neither
of us could immediately recall after all these years;
fittingly, Charlie termed it ``Half-and-Half-and-the-Other-
Half.'')
Obviously, it has been a joy to work alongside Charlie at
both newspapers. And I mean ``alongside'' literally.
As a college student in the late 1960s, my Journal police
reporter desk sat an arm's length away from his drawing room.
Here in the News Sentinel's new building, Chas and I reside
in neighboring cubicles. I call it the Geezer Quad.
That's going to change in a few weeks when our newsroom
undergoes a fruit basket turnover desk rearrangement--one of
those New Age efficiency initiatives the suits dream up over
noon martinis.
Charlie will be moving into the old business news
department, which is shuffling to heaven-knows-where, while
I'll be going over to his old cubicle. This is called
progress.
But I maintain nothing will change, because Charlie,
dangnabbit, will still be closer to the window and thus will
have greater access to the muse who delivers inspiration on a
daily basis.
Hey, I need the muse! Not Charlie! This guy swims in
creative juices!
[[Page E1480]]
Charlie shows up around 7:30 a.m. and spends several hours
scanning newspapers, journals and magazines. Then he doodles
with the vast array of ideas the %$#@! muse has dumped into
his lap, cranks out three or four potential cartoons for the
next day, decides on one, colors it and saunters out the
front door, carefree as a hoppy toad.
I, on the other hand, am lucky to wake up in time to grab
lunch, pour a cup of coffee, exchange office gossip with
colleagues, compare fishing stories over the phone with
friends, e-mail the latest bawdy jokes I've heard to everyone
in my address book, drink more coffee, loudly curse the moron
who didn't rebrew coffee, check my parlay sheets, drink even
more coffee--and then type myself into a furious, sweaty,
nail-biting panic till deadline, milking the lone thread of
creativity I stole from someone else until it is toast-dry.
Is this fair?
OK, so here's the serious truth: Charlie Daniel is blessed
with the quickest wit this side of Hollywood. Plus the
ability to take that humor, reduce it to a drawing and zing
his point home in a panel the size of a Kleenex.
Try it sometime. After you've spent a week in frustration,
you might understand how difficult the task is day after day,
year after year.
Yet he dismisses the silly notion that he's ever had a real
job.
``I'm doing what I did in the second grade,'' he says.
``I've never gone high-tech. I still draw with a pen and
paper, not on a computer screen.''
Perhaps. But you don't stay on top of this game without a
keen eye for news and a comedian's sense of timing.
``Some of my earlier work was overdone,'' he said. ``I've
learned to know when to quit a drawing. Just make your point
and stop.
``Also, editorial cartoons have a short life span. Next
week, somebody might look at it and say, `What the heck was
that all about?' At the same time, you can't be too quick
with an idea or else you'll be ahead of the public.''
An excellent example occurred recently when NASA announced
it was sending plumbing materials to the International Space
Station to fix a broken toilet. The next morning, Charlie's
cartoon showed a giant plunger blasting off. When confused
readers began calling, he realized he'd struck too soon.
``I probably should have given that one a day or two
more,'' he said. ``But you're always juggling with the fact
that bloggers and late-night TV folks are already using the
same material.''
Let me tell you a few things I've learned about ``Cholly''
after working with him over most of 40 years:
The same fellow who has rubbed shoulders with presidents
and barons of commerce is one of the most laid-back, down-to-
earth, genuine nice guys you'll ever meet.
He can, and often does, make a serious point without having
to dip his pen into poison ink.
He is a five-time nominee for journalism's highest award,
the Pulitzer Prize.
He is soft-spoken, leads a quiet life of humble service to
society's lost and downtrodden, and is quick to laugh at
himself.
He takes immense delight in sharing with me visceral hate
mail from the occasional reader who either misunderstood a
cartoon or was its most-deserved target. Or, as one nutty
reviewer ranted in misplaced criticism of country music
legend Charlie Daniels (with an ``s''), ``I hate your music,
too!''
I was sitting in the audience in 2005 for a humor-in-
politics seminar hosted by the Howard Baker Center at the
University of Tennessee. The panel featured some of the
nation's most noted political wits, including the late
syndicated columnist Art Buchwald.
Ask anyone who saw this performance: The others were funny,
but Charlie brought the house down with self-deprecating
lines, one after another.
That same shy attitude is reflected when he talks about the
impact of his editorial cartoons:
``I'd be happy hitting .350.''
Trust me, his batting average is exceedingly higher. Ol'
Ignatius Daniel has made journalism's All-Star roster 50
years straight--and counting.
____________________