Our year-long celebration of the 10th anniversary of “Snide Remarks,” in which we spotlight a different column each Wednesday, continues apace with “Zombie for Mayor.” This “Snide Remarks” Classic, #290, was published May 29, 2002, and it was met with a lot of blank stares and head-scratching because it was the first time I’d ever written a column that was a work of complete fiction. Usually I talked about news stories, or related things that had happened to me, or just rambled about whatever was on my mind. But this time, I made up a fictional character and a fanciful situation, and the abrupt shift from the norm threw a lot of people off.
I really liked the character, though, and have brought him back on two subsequent occasions. I’ve also done a few complete-fiction pieces since then, and messed with the traditional “Snide Remarks” format quite a bit, so I think readers aren’t as baffled by it as they once were.
