Friday, October 30, 2009

Blast From The Past: Jim Bernhard

Thanks, Google!

I got an email the other day from one of my former supervisers at the Houston Ticket Center. Jim Bernhard, performing arts Renaissance Man, former head of Houston's Society for the Performing Arts, and arts administrator, playwright, actor and author, has a new book. He was googling about the public radio quiz show "Says You!" and my name came up.

In the performing arts world, Jim's done it all. The Society for the Performing Arts brought the world's best orchestras, ballets, and soloists to Houston; Jim also ran Theatre Under The Stars and the Alley at different times, plus some international trade groups for arts administrators. He hosted an arts show on public TV, and wrote plays and musicals and acted.

Last time I saw Jim was in the 90s, where he was playing opposite Juliet Prowse in a touring production of "Mame" that played Hartford's Bushnell. Another colleague of mine from my Houston days was the show's press rep. So, I managed to see the musical twice and hang out with Jim some (and meet Juliet Prowse who was a fabulous "Mame").

His new book, "Words Gone Wild" (coming out in Spring 2010 from Skyhorse Publishers) is a zestful book about words--their histories, and sometime hilarious examples of puns, double entendres, tongue-twisters and more. It's a follow-up effort to his book "Porcupine, Picayune, & Post: How Newspapers Get Their Names".

Jim's blog: http://www.wordsgoingwild.blogspot.com/

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