Russell Wayne Baker (1925-2019): Observer of absurdities

Baker stands out even in this exalted company. He celebrated the ordinary and the everyday life, championing the little men and women considered of no consequence by the system

In the summer of 1966, I was running simulations of a model I had developed for my master’s dissertation at Northwestern University.  The computer centre accepted only one run daily, giving me ample free time thereafter. I spent it on the Lake Michigan beach adjoining the campus, reading The New York Times. The first Monday that summer I read Russell Baker (who died last week) for the first time, describing the ordeal he subjected himself to of reading Marcel Proust’s Remembrances of Things Past. He confessed to making a resolution every summer to finish it, but never going beyond the