Gene Weingarten facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Gene Weingarten
Weingarten in 2019
Born	New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	New York University
Occupation	Writer
Years active	1972–present
Employer	Formerly The Washington Post
Children	2

Gene Norman Weingarten is an American journalist and writer. He is famous for his funny columns that were published for many years in The Washington Post. He is the only person to win the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing twice. The Pulitzer is a very important award for American writers. Weingarten is known for writing both serious articles and humorous stories.

Until 2021, his column "Below the Beltway" appeared weekly in The Washington Post magazine. It was also syndicated, meaning it was published in many other newspapers across the country. Weingarten also co-writes the comic strip Barney & Clyde with his son, Dan.

Early Life and School

Gene Weingarten was born in New York City. He grew up in the Bronx neighborhood. His father was an agent for the Internal Revenue Service (the U.S. government agency that collects taxes), and his mother was a schoolteacher.

In 1968, Weingarten graduated from The Bronx High School of Science. He then went to New York University. At first, he planned to study medicine but later changed his major to psychology. He also became the editor of the university's student newspaper.

Writing Career

Weingarten's career began in 1972 while he was still in college. He wrote a story about gangs in the Bronx that was featured on the cover of New York Magazine. His first job at a newspaper was for the Knickerbocker News in Albany, New York.

Over the years, he worked at several other newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press and The National Law Journal. From 1981 to 1990, he was the editor of Tropic, the Sunday magazine of the Miami Herald. While he was the editor, he hired the famous humor writer Dave Barry. The magazine won two Pulitzer Prizes during that time.

Working at The Washington Post

In 1990, Weingarten started working for The Washington Post, one of the most famous newspapers in the United States. He wrote a weekly humor column called "Below the Beltway." He also created a popular humor contest for the newspaper called The Style Invitational.

Weingarten hosted a well-known online chat on the newspaper's website. He talked with readers about many topics, including comic strips, humor, and politics. In 2021, he wrote his last humor column for the Post. He announced a few months later that he would no longer be writing for the newspaper.

Writing on Substack

In January 2023, Weingarten started a new online chat called "The Gene Pool" on the Substack website. Substack is a platform that lets writers publish their own newsletters directly to readers. People can read his posts for free, but they need a subscription to join the chat.

Books and Other Projects

Weingarten has written several books on different subjects.

Books About Health and Life

Weingarten has described himself as a hypochondriac, which is a person who often worries about being sick. In 1998, he wrote his first book, The Hypochondriac's Guide To Life. And Death. He wrote it after being diagnosed with a serious illness called Hepatitis C.

He also co-wrote a book with writer Gina Barreca called I'm with Stupid. It was a funny book about the differences between men and women.

Books About Animals and Family

In 2008, Weingarten published Old Dogs: Are the Best Dogs. For the book, he and a photographer profiled 63 dogs that were between 10 and 17 years old. The idea for the book came to him after his own dog, Harry S Truman, passed away.

In 2014, he wrote a children's picture book called Me & Dog. The book is about a boy named Sid and his dog, Murphy. Weingarten has said he is an atheist, meaning he does not believe in a god, and he wrote the book to provide stories for children from a non-religious point of view.

The Comic Strip Barney & Clyde

In 2010, Weingarten and his son, Dan, launched the comic strip Barney & Clyde. The comic is about the friendship between a billionaire named J. Barnard Pillsbury and a homeless man named Clyde Finster. It took them over five years to develop the comic strip.

The Book One Day

In 2019, Weingarten published a unique book called One Day. To choose a date for the book, children picked numbers out of a hat. The date they chose was December 28, 1986. Weingarten then researched and wrote about all the interesting things that happened in America on that single day. The book showed that there is no such thing as an "ordinary" day.

Personal Life

Weingarten has lived in several places on the East Coast of the United States. Since 2001, he has lived in Washington, D.C. He has two children, Molly and Dan. Molly is a veterinarian, and Dan is a cartoonist who works with his father on Barney & Clyde.

In his free time, Weingarten is an amateur horologist, which means he enjoys studying and collecting clocks and watches.

Works and publications

Books

• Weingarten, Gene (1998). The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-85281-9. OCLC 39347749.
• Weingarten, Gene; Barreca, Gina (2004). I'm with Stupid: One Man. One Woman. 10,000 Years of Misunderstandings Between the Sexes Cleared Right Up. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-4420-6. OCLC 53285198.
• Weingarten, Gene; Williamson, Michael S. (2008). Old Dogs: Are the Best Dogs. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-3499-3. OCLC 122335086.
• Weingarten, Gene; Shansby, Eric (2014). Me & Dog. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-1-4424-9415-1. OCLC 869265596.
• Weingarten, Gene (2019). One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America. New York: Blue Rider Press. ISBN 978-0-399-57639-8. OCLC 1089237523.

Selected articles

• Weingarten, Gene (April 8, 2007). "Pearls Before Breakfast". The Washington Post Magazine (Washington, D.C.). https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/pearls-before-breakfast-can-one-of-the-nations-great-musicians-cut-through-the-rush-hour-din-to-move-the-masses/2014/09/23/8a18dA5a-4331-11e4-b437-1a7368204804_story.html.
• Weingarten, Gene (December 7, 2008). "The Peekaboo Paradox". The Washington Post Magazine (Washington, D.C.). https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/25/AR2008112501773.html.
• Weingarten, Gene (January 22, 2013). "The Fiddler in the Subway". The Washington Post (Washington, D.C.). https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-fiddler-in-the-subway-the-story-of-what-happened-when-joshua-bell-played-in-the-metro/2013/01/22/83e5104a-64e2-11e2-b84d-21c7b65985ee_story.html.
• Weingarten, Gene (September 26, 2021). "The Short Goodbye". The Washington Post Magazine (Washington, D.C.). https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/09/26/gene-weingarten-final-column/.
• Weingarten, Gene (December 8, 2021). "A Dog’s Life: Why are so many people so cruel to their dogs? My search to understand a hidden scourge". The Washington Post Magazine (Washington, D.C.). https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/12/08/dog-abuse-animal-cruelty-investigation/.

See also

• Barney & Clyde