The Wry World of Reg Henry

Reg Henry is an award-winning syndicated columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His work has appeared in more than 150 newspapers in the United States, causing laughter and, at times, dismay depending on the reader's taste for his dry sense of humor. (A taste by the way—that can sometime be enhanced by an adult beverage.) According to Henry, his “real” job at the PG has been “composing serious editorials on subjects so boring that police negotiators read them to hostage takers to make them give up.” But his weekly column he considers a vacation from his regular work. Having grown up in Australia and lived and worked in England for a time, Henry wrote this about the mysteries of Pittsburgh: “When I first arrived in Pittsburgh…signs outside seedy establishments on Liberty Avenue advertised Live Nudes, which was a bit creepy because that suggested the possible existence of dead nudes.” On attending his son's sporting events, he put forth: “My only regret was that I did not go to every game…Fortunately, Hamilton College is only 396 miles from Pittsburgh, and it would be an easy drive if it weren't for the regular blizzards and torrential rain in Erie and New York.” Reg Henry's columns range from the joys of drinking Guinness, to the perils of being a Carnegie Mellon University braniac living in gender-neutral on-campus housing. His take is always fresh, if a bit twisted—holding up an odd little mirror to the human condition.“In Iraq, we are told hitting someone with a shoe is among the worst of insults. In our culture, the worst insult to the national intelligence is to fail to kick someone out of office when he or she richly deserves it.”