Books, Arts & Manners: Passing for Funny

The Rescue of Miss Yaskell and Other Pipe Dreams, by Russell Baker (Congdon & Weed, 294 pp„ $14.95)

In the past few years, Russell Baker, resident funnyman at the somber old New York Times, has become a certified Celebrity: Pulitzer Prize, best-seller list, rave reviews, cover of Time magazine, the works. All of which gives rise, naturally, to a churlish question: Just how funny is he, really? Compared with whom? is the sensible answer. Compared with Wicker, Lewis, and Reston, those venerable gloompusses of the Times Op-Ed page? Next to these, Baker, as they used to say in the movie ads, is a laugh-riot.

WM

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William Murchison

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The Rescue of Miss Yaskell and Other Pipe Dreams, by Russell Baker (Congdon & Weed, 294 pp„ $14.95)

In the past few years, Russell Baker, resident funnyman at the somber old New York Times, has become a certified Celebrity: Pulitzer Prize, best-seller list, rave reviews, cover of Time magazine, the works. All of which gives rise, naturally, to a churlish question: Just how funny is he, really? Compared with whom? is the sensible answer. Compared with Wicker, Lewis, and Reston, those venerable gloompusses of the Times Op-Ed page? Next to these, Baker, as they used to say in the movie ads, is a laugh-riot.