The Art of Flippery

In a 1962 “Exit, Laughing” column, Ed Zern announced that Ted Trueblood was too ideal an outdoorsman and had been invented by the editors in New York. Zern wrote in jest, but outraged readers bought it, because Trueblood did indeed seem too good to be true. Lean and lanky, squinty-eyed and furrow-faced, burned ruddy by the sun and the wind, he was the epitome of skill in the outdoors. Ted could write about anything and make it fascinating. And he wrote perfect copy. You couldn’t shift a comma without detracting from what he had put on paper.

He had a sense of