Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up (Dave Barry) - Crown Publishers - 1994 - 244 pages

Yes, this is the Dave Barry book with the columns about "The Worst Songs Ever Recorded" (pages 178-195).  It all started with an innocent, offhand comment about Neil Diamond's rhyming skills.  I agree that those song lyrics were awful.  But those were our songs on our transistor radios pressed against our ears.  I will go to my grave with way too many brain cells devoted to some truly awful song lyrics.

This is not just another collection of Dave's newspaper columns.  This is like the greatest hits of the stories about stuff that really happened.  Toilet snakes, flame-throwing toasters and boating misadventures are well represented in this volume.  The book follows Dave and wife Beth from the birth of their son Rob to the very moving account of the day Rob was hit by an automobile (page 232).  My only regret when re-reading this book was having the knowledge that Dave and Beth were divorced in 1993.  I will never understand how two people could just cast aside so many shared experiences.  In the end, memories of these experiences are all that remain. [JAM 2/9/2011]