Thirty years ago, I was fresh out of college, with no particular career path chosen, and I decided I'd like to be a nationally syndicated columnist. I'd learn rather quickly that before being one, one has to become one, and to qualify on that caliber, one has to demonstrate a talent which this young man didn't possess.

Bill Buckley told me so. I'd penned a couple of practice pieces — one having something to do with Jimmy Carter's choice of Muhammad Ali as his ambassador-at-large ...

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