Back in the aughts, Cracked magazine was owned by the same company as the Weekly World News. During the rocky final years of Cracked, our editor, in an attempt to give the writers a pay check, had us contribute articles to WWN ("the humor magazine that nobody knows is a humor magazine.") It took me a while to get the hang of the paper but first the editor suggested I do the "Letter and Answer" format for their Dear Abby-style advice column, except that their "expert," Dottie, was a bitch. I struggled with the format, kinda of recycling various jokes and bits I had over the years into a letter format with a snotty answer.
Did they skip a week? Did I not find the issue for that week? I don't know. But, it was time for a double article, so maybe they did hold if off. Being all over the place isn't a problem with the columns, since I was supposed to be simply answering the random letters that came to me. Which is maybe why it got hard to do. There was no momentum to build off of. It was all herky-jerky, stop & start from column to column, heck, from letter to letter. I was grabbing random thoughts and punchlines to insert where I could. A "Green Acres" reference? Why not! Dog Parent dig? One of my favorite targets through the years. "Fiddler on the Roof" scenario? Sure. Like I said, it was tough churning out the material, week after week and sometimes doubled. I was hanging on by a thread but I needed to keep at it because the checks came in handy.
