Saying ciao to Jerry Berger, with thanks.

When I read today's announcement in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of the retirement of perennial "gossip columnist" Jerry Berger, it was with surprise, a sense of inevitability, nostalgia -- and no small amount of gratitude to the guy.

One hundred years ago, when I left Southwestern Bell's corporate communications staff for the insane adventure of freelance writing and branding strategy (as "Jaschek Ink," then "The Walt Jaschek Company"), Jerry was an unexpected booster.

It was, in fact, his news story on the 1989 Addy Awards that really took me from total obscurity to just semi-obscurity.

Not long after that story ran, Jerry called and summoned me to come down to the Post and meet him in person; I nervously but immediately did so. When I arrived in the newsroom, he looked up from his cluttered desk, put out a cigarette and said, scowling: "Why, you're just a PUP!" (I was 33 at the time, with nothing "pup"-like about me, save for a cold nose and occasional incontinence.) He laughed and said he expected someone older; but he interviewed me at length that day, ran another nice story, then continued to call often after that, seeking "tips" for either his main column or the marketing column he also wrote throughout the 90s.

Many people thought I was somehow "planting" these items, but in fact, honest to gosh, I was just sitting in my basement office, answering the phone, feeling blindsided. "Walt? Berger," he would say, curtly. "What's going on?" With no time to prepare, my heart would race and I'd fumble for an interesting anecdote: I could hear him typing as I spoke. "Thanks, babe. Got it. Ciao," he'd say, and hang up.

Sure enough, the next morning: more ink , usually about Paul & Walt Worldwide, the partnership I launched with Paul Fey, and our funny radio commercials.

But not always:

Gotta love the color registration on the Post-Dispatch in those days!

These phone calls tapered off as Jerry abadoned the marketing column, and as I entered my mid-life crisis and shunned publicity, but I in retrospect consider it a surreal honor to have once been in his Rolodex. So thanks for everything, Jerry. Have a blissful retirement. And if you want something juicy for that book you're gonna write, I'm now at 314-479-1966.

See? My mid-life crisis is over. You can quote me.

P.S. Wanna see that Marvel Comics story Jerry mentions in the above clipping? It be here.