Famous Queens Resident Series, Part VI

Jimmy Breslin (born October 17, 1930) is an American columnist and author who has written numerous novels and appeared regularly in various newspapers in New York City, where he lives. On November 2, 2004 he retired as a regular columnist from Newsday but stated his intention to continue writing. In his final Newsday column, Breslin incorrectly predicted a Kerry victory in the 2004 Presidential election.

Breslin was born in Jamaica, New York. In 1969, he ran unsuccessfully as an independent for New York City Council President allied with writer Norman Mailer running for Mayor, with the agenda of New York City secession as the 51st state. According to film director William Friedkin, Breslin was originally hired to play the role of Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in the 1971 film The French Connection, and completed three weeks of rehearsals with co-star Roy Scheider before Friedkin decided to recast the role.

In 1977, the Son of Sam killer, David Berkowitz, addressed a letter to Breslin at the height of the Son of Sam scare in New York City. In 1985 he received a George Polk Award for Metropolitan Reporting. He won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Among his notable columns, perhaps the best known was published the day after John F. Kennedy's funeral, focusing on the man who had dug the President's grave.[1] The column was indicative of Breslin's style, which often highlights how major events or the actions of those considered "newsworthy" affect the "common man."In The Gift of A Water Buffalo, an article written in December 2003, he describes purchasing a Water Buffalo for an impoverished family through the nonprofit charitable organization Heifer International. He claims that Heifer International is the only charity he has ever endorsed. In 1990, Breslin received an e-mail characterizing one of his Newsday columns as sexist. He responded in the Newsday newsroom with an ad hominem attack by promptly denouncing the sender of the e-mail, Ji-Yeon Mary Yuh, a female Korean-American reporter who was a colleague of Breslin's at Newsday, as a "yellow, slant-eyed cur." He also called her what the The New York Times would only describe as "an obscene anatomical reference." The full quote, reported by Helen Zia in Asian American Dreams, 2000, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, is "The fucking bitch doesn't know her place. She's a little dog, a little cur running along the street. She's a yellow cur. Let's make it racial. She's a slant-eyed cunt." Breslin also appeared on the Howard Stern show to further air his grievances. Newsday suspended him for two weeks without pay, even though he offered an apology to the young reporter. Breslin is married to former New York City Councilmember Ronnie Eldridge. His daughter Rosemary died June 14, 2004 from a rare blood disease.

"Those of Manhattan are the brokers on Wall Street and they talk of people who went to the same colleges; those from Queens are margin clerks in the back offices and they speak of friends who live in the same neighborhood."
~Jimmy Breslin

Courtesy of WIKIPEDIA