By Jack Limpert
Five longtime journalists were sitting around a Washington lunch table yesterday when Wes asked if any of us had gone to the memorial service for a DC-area journalist and teacher. Mike said he knew the man but hadn’t gone to the service.
I said, “Remember the old saying from Chicago politics: ‘If you don’t go to other people’s funerals, they won’t come to yours.'”
To which Paul said, “That was Yogi Berra.”
Paul was right. Berra, among his other great lines, said, “You should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours.”
The saying also applies to author appearances at bookstores. A lot of fellow authors seem to show up at these, suggesting that if you don’t go to their book promotion events, they won’t come to yours.
I always figured if it wasn’t Yogi who said it, it was Churchill, Rogers or Twain.