Alice Kahn

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Alice Joyce Kahn (born 1943

San Jose Mercury News. A self-professed "sit-down comic" noted for her "Jewish-American wit",[6] her understated brand of humor has been compared to that of Erma Bombeck.[7][8] The Chicago Reader commented on her liberal political viewpoint, writing that she was "Joan Rivers with a social conscience."[9]

Early life and career

Kahn was born Alice Joyce Nelson and raised in

San Francisco State to earn a teaching credential.[4] They married in August 1966.[6]

Kahn taught high school English for three years in San Lorenzo. In 1969, she quit in advance of being laid off because of school district downsizing. She started working at the Berkeley Free Clinic, and was encouraged to become a nurse.[4] In 1973 she enrolled at California State University, Hayward, to become a registered nurse, working with the Alameda County Public Health Department. She returned to SF State to get a nurse practitioner degree in 1976, and took a position at a medical group in Berkeley.[6]

Writing

Kahn wrote an article using the "

Cocolat and half a block from Chez Panisse".[13]

Kahn took inspiration from the 1983 Roz Chast comic "Attack of the Young Professionals!"

In early 1983, Kahn began writing an article about young urban professionals named Dirk and Brie, a satirical faux-sociological study. She coined the word "yuppie" for the article, basing it on the word "yups" appearing in the Chicago Reader, and on a New Yorker magazine cartoon by Roz Chast titled "Attack of the Young Professionals!", published in April 1983. She was unaware the word yuppie had been used earlier.[2] She published her satirical piece in the East Bay Express on June 10, 1983, about ten weeks after Bob Greene put the word in his Chicago Tribune column on March 23.[14] Kahn's piece was a more thorough description, more definitive, and after it was reprinted by other publications, it served to popularize the term to a greater degree.[4][2]

After accepting the offer of a free ticket to see the Grateful Dead at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, Kahn reviewed their July 1984 concert, writing in the East Bay Express how she pictured Jerry Garcia as the "hippie abominable snowman".[5] Garcia liked her review and asked Kahn to come to his house in San Rafael to interview him, at the same time refusing an interview request from the Today show.[5] Kahn arrived to find Garcia very high on some substance (a condition she easily recognized from her nurse training) and she thought he would be a terrible interview subject. He was quite coherent, however, and Kahn recorded the interview on cassette tape, with Garcia talking about his childhood and his passion for music. Kahn edited the interview and published the piece in West magazine at the end of 1984: "Jerry Garcia and the Call of the Weird". Kahn received $1200 from West but she gave almost all of it to Dennis McNally, the publicist of the Grateful Dead, because she had accidentally damaged his car with her own as she left Garcia's house.[5] Kahn's piece was reprinted several times, appearing in books about Garcia and the Grateful Dead. In 2019, the cassette tape was digitized for streaming online so that fans could hear the full interview for the first time.[5]

Personal life

Kahn lives in the

consumption. They have two daughters, Emma and Hannah.[8][15]

Books

  • 1985 – Multiple Sarcasm, Ten Speed Press[16]
  • 1987 – My Life as a Gal, Delacorte[7]
  • 1990 – Luncheon at the Cafe Ridiculous, Poseidon Press[17]
  • 1991 – Fun with Dirk and Bree, Poseidon Press.
    ISBN 978-0671691516
  • 1997 – Your Joke is in the E-Mail: Cyberlaffs from Mousepotatoes, with John Dobby Boe. Ten Speed Press.
    ISBN 978-0898159882

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9780195053234
    . Born in Chicago in 1943...
  2. ^ a b c Finke, Nikki (May 11, 1987). "Claimed Creator of 'Yuppie' Comes to Terms with 'Gal'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Wood, Cirrus (February 26, 2008). "Ask Nosh: Where did the term 'Gourmet Ghetto' come from?". Berkeleyside. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e Petersen, Clarence (March 28, 1986). "The Wacky Side of Chicago-born, Berkeley-bred Alice Kahn". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e Jones, Kevin L. (August 2, 2019). "Back from the Dead: Alice Kahn on the day she interviewed Jerry Garcia". Datebook. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d Kahn, Susan Sacks (1986). "Irreverent East Bay humorist writes with Jewish wit". Northern California Jewish Bulletin. Vol. 135. San Francisco Jewish Community Publications. pp. 49–50.
  7. ^ a b Mairs, Nancy (June 14, 1987). "'My Life as a Gal: Memoirs, Essays, and Outright Silliness' by Alice Kahn". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  8. ^ a b Russell, Candice (June 14, 1987). "Chronicle of Crazy Times Punctures the Pompous". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  9. ^ Cody's Books (November 1988). "Authors at Cody's". Folio. KPFA. p. 4.
  10. ^ a b Parker, Susan (October 17, 2003). "Tasting the Cheese Board's Collective Works". The Berkeley Daily Planet. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  11. ^ Harris, L. John (September 11, 2019). "Opinion: So, Wrecking Ball Coffee, you don't like the name 'Gourmet Ghetto'?". Berkeleyside. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  12. Cal Alumni Association
    . Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  13. ^ Rosenzweig, Sandra (1981). "Restaurants: Two real Jewish delis – lox, stock and bagel". New West. Vol. 5, no. 2. Los Angeles. pp. 81–82.
  14. ISSN 0890-1759
    .
  15. ^ Kahn, Alice (September 30, 1990). "On Sniffing Out the Scent That Lasts a Lifetime". Los Angeles Times.
  16. ^ Petersen, Clarence (November 5, 1985). "Multiple Sarcasm, by Alice Kahn (Ten Speed..." Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  17. ^ Bolle, Sonja (April 8, 1990). "'Luncheon at the Cafe Ridiculous' by Alice Kahn". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
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