Andy Rooney (1919-2011) was a well-known journalist and essayist whose columns we featured for years in this newspaper. He was a friend of former publishers Howard and Marylouise Cowan. His columns used to arrive via the U.S. Postal Service and we usually had a choice of two or three columns to publish.

Mr. Rooney – he also appeared on “60 Minutes” for several years – gave this newspaper national exposure during one of his TV spots, saying the Boothbay Register was one of his favorite newspapers and a must read to learn about rural America. Whether his friendships with the Cowans had anything to do with his “plug,” we’ll never know.

In any case, I recently came across one of his columns, “Writing About Writing,” while going through one of the dozens of yearbooks we have stored in the office basement. This column was his announcement that he was cutting back from writing three columns a week to just one.

As someone who writes this column (I said at the outset I am not going to write editorials), I was curious to what he had to say in this particular column. One of the things he reminded me of was that “when a writer is faced with the choice of styles, it is always better if he writes more like he speaks. If you know the writer, you should be able to hear his voice as you read the words.”

I do hope I write like I speak in most of these columns but he also provided a question that I have wondered about over the years … “How much do I have to say that anyone cares about reading?”

That’s the good thing about reading. You can either continue to the end or skip it altogether. But I do hope you read my and Susan Johns’ weekly columns. I consider her writing superior to mine. Sometimes we both take a break, either when we are too busy or don’t have the inspiration.