DOUG KAPLAN
I worked with Doug Kaplan at Sports Eye and we were pretty good friends. I went to his wedding. I always wondered what he's doing now and if he's still a laywer. He was a terrific writer, interesting and funny. One time I was writing the Monticello analysis and I went to the bathroom. When I was out, he sat down at the typewriter and inserted something about a harness driver named Artie Bier into my column. Artie Bier had just come back from a suspension and it read something like, "Artie Bier, former bag man for the Columbo gang, returns from suspension," or something like that. It went in the paper! The next day I get a phone call from Artie Bier! I was mortified. I knew it was Doug, just his style of irreverent wit. I made him get on the phone with Artie Bier and confess that it wasn't me. Artie was pretty cool, I must admit. He said something like, "I just got back, please don't write anything like that anymore!" We apologized profusely, but it was pretty funny.
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