[IncPen]

I worked in Chicago media for over 10 years.

I knew.

[csvset]

During the last year the woman phoned Greene twice, sources said.

According to the e-mail, on the day after the second time, she received a call from the FBI suggesting she may be posing a threat to the columnist.

Any truth to this? Did she want some money, perhaps she was lonesome, what?

Perhaps Greene had seen Play Misty For Me, too many times and was spooked.

What context did Greene write about this "late teen" anyways? Is the original column available?

[Liz]

Thanks for the verification.

[Wright is right!]

It really is amazing what you see and hear when working IN the media. You learn things that you NEVER print or put on the air - but gain context from nonetheless. Things like this become what are called "well-known secrets." There isn't a media market in the country that doesn't have its share of "who's boinking whom" and people who cling to elevated pay grades despite performing yawningly pedestrian work. Everyone in the media knows and knows whom, how, and why. You don't say anything because to do so is a career-killer.

Bob Greene always amazed me with his dazzling ability to churn out wretchedly-ordinary 8th-grade book-report prose and earn a big-city paycheck for it. To paraphrase an old radio buddy who now does mornings in Vegas, it's as if Bob sat down one day and wrote ONE very long column...and each deadline, he'd just hack off a piece of it and turn it in. Like another chorus of "Hey, Jude." Or "Second verse, same as the first," from "Henry The Eighth" by Herman's Hermits.

There was, in 1968, a DJ on WKNR in Detroit named Bob Greene (same spelling) who did on radio pretty much the same thing the columnist did in the paper - sound bland as tapioca and get paid for it. I always wondered if they were the same guy.

I just hope Greene has some bucks in his 401-k.

Michael

[Trickyguy]

I worked as a journalist, too. Twenty years ago I had teenage girls telling me about Greene hitting on them.