Joel Keller

For the new year, I decided to start a new feature called “Dead Article Theater.” This is where I’ll put essays and articles that never saw the light of day. These could be essays or ideas that were shopped around forever and ever and given the thumbs down at every turn. Alternately, they could be assigned articles that, for some reason, got killed and I was unable to place it elsewhere, either because of indifference or laziness.

This first article is in the latter category. In April 2007, I pitched Radar Online the idea of doing an interview with Jackie Martling, formerly of the Howard Stern Show. They agreed. I could have easily done the interview over the phone, but when Jackie offered to take me to the Friars Club, I couldn’t turn it down. So I traveled into the city, met Jackie at his midtown Manhattan apartment (he lives in the same building as Colin Quinn, whom I saw on the way in) and did the interview, then went to the Friars Club for lunch.

(Photo: Oglio Records)
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A few quick items:

• I have a blurb about NJ Devils’ owner Jeff Vanderbeek in the January / February issue of Arrive, Amtrak’s in-train magazine. You can read a digital copy of the magazine here; my contribution is on Page 12.
• On Monday, I’m rolling out a new feature on this blog; for now I’m calling it “Dead Article Theater”. It will consist of articles that were killed by the publications I wrote them for, or essays that never found a home after years of submissions. The first piece is an interview I did last April with a very funny comedian that anyone who listened to a certain radio show would know pretty well. Stay tuned.
• Finally… I’m getting a lot of comment sp*m. Since I moderate comments, I delete them before they ever get published on the blog. But they seem to be coming in at a more rapid pace than ever. Any of you veteran bloggers figure out a way to stop the sp*m? The only way I’ve seen is to use HaloScan, which of course takes the comments off my server. Any ideas? Let me know in the comments (I’ll make sure I approve them if you’re not already approved. Honest).