Bruce Jay Friedman, R.I.P.

Sad to hear of the passing of one of my favorite writers, Bruce Jay Friedman. Obits like this one celebrate him for his screenplays and novels, and they're wonderful, but I think of his as one of our great playwrights. In my library, I have all my Bruce Jay Friedman books with the plays, not the movie books or novels. He had a dark, irresistible sense of humor.

I never got to meet the man. I know one of his sons — the fine caricaturist Drew Friedman — but I never got to meet Bruce Jay and I'm sorry. I would have liked to tell him how much his work has meant to me. I hope he's enjoying his time in the steambath right about now.