What would Herb Caen think about the Internet

What would Herb Caen think about the Internet?

Darn, I'd have loved to see just one column. A Sunday solo piece devoted to all this mess would have been a hoot.

The truth is, Caen, the legendary Chronicle columnist who died in 1997, (gosh, has it been 13 years?) would have been just as charming, funny, and imaginative in this electronic age. It's just that his audience may have been smaller, but just as loyal.

Caen was in the twilight of his career when the Internet just began to take off in the mid-to-late 90's. I don't think he would have disappeared off the SF social zeitgeist because with Herb, it was all about the city and the people and places, the comings and goings all things 415, with a smidgen of 212 and 916 in between.

Come to think of it, I bet Caen would have thrived. He'd have made fun of people like Ann Coulter and Tucker Carlsen; could you fantasize how'd he handle a Glenn Beck or Andrew Breitbart? Rush Limbaugh? And the Gulf oil disaster and its side players like Tony Hayward? Mincemeat for Caen.

It's a shame that the vastness of the Internet has marginalized many of our greatest writers and columnists; certainly its contributed to the death of the newspapers, but a magician like Caen would have devised a tactic to counteract the electronic enemy.

More than just survive, Caen would have thrived, just as he did before the onslaught of journalistic cyberspace, (is that an oxymoron?) because Caen wrote for a loyal and eager audience who'd have relished his time and presence in the new age of the Internet.

I would have bet on it.