Today, I am happy to report that my work has received a serious honor, the 2022 @dcpressclub National Press Club Award for humor in journalism. Some might question the place of humor writing in our field, just as they might question the judges’ wisdom in rewarding a writer who mined a pandemic for hilarity, Newsday’s in commissioning a how-to piece on eating in the car, or my own in setting a food critic’s palate loose on fast-food fried fish sandwiches, Marshmallow Peeps and other semi-edible detritus. But readers themselves felt no such qualms about this writing, even finding -- cruel irony alert -- nourishment of a sort in it, egging me on in letters I will always treasure. (Sample: “After a tense year of COVID and politics, it was so good to get a belly laugh.”) I concede that there is a certain amount of ridiculousness to the articles, but there was a ridiculousness to the times too, along with terrific heartbreak and loss of life. To this moment, I wonder if I would have survived those days without finding humor in them, and will always feel honored to have helped others find humor in them as well.