Still a Breslin fan, a world away

Melbourne, Australia: As a New Yorker who’s been living in Australia for the past 25 years, I was saddened to hear of Jimmy Breslin’s passing, yet pleased to read the excellent obituary by Jason Silverstein and Larry McShane. You did him proud. A few tears fell as I rode the bus to work this morning here in Melbourne, tears for a man I never met, but one I admired so much because of what he wrote and the way he wrote it.

I lived in Manhattan in the late 1970s and 1980s, when J.B. wrote columns for the Daily News. There really was nothing like them — as you illustrated, he had that talent to present the facts as a profoundly affecting human story. I used to tell people that if I was ever killed while living there, I’d like him to report the story. I wrote to him once, from here in Australia, to tell him how much I appreciated his writing. I had just read his moving column after 9/11, in which he wondered what had happened to a young woman he used to nod hello to in his neighborhood, but never saw again after that day. We can all relate to that: people we know but don’t know, familiar yet utter strangers, and if something happens, and they disappear, you always wonder. Now reporting from the clouds: Right on, Jimmy Breslin, write on.

Home schooling

Port Chester, N.Y.: I always felt — and always will — that all the education anyone could ever need was in the writings of Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill. What they added and continue to add to my life is indescribable. It has been a privilege to have walked in their world. Lord, receive thy honored guest. Larry Wolfson

Man of the people

South Glens Falls, N.Y.: I grew up reading Breslin, from the 1960s all the way through the years. He was the greatest New York writer ever, who took the common speech of his time and made poetry out of it, without making it seem like poetry, without you noticing it unless you had an ear for poetry yourself. To me, his best book was “The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez”; it had everything Breslin condensed into one volume. The City of New York should create a school of social justice and name it after Jimmy Breslin.

Ken Simmons

Breslin’s platform: 51st state

Great Neck, L.I.: Your coverage of the life of Jimmy Breslin was a wonderful trip down memory lane. It reminded me of a great idea put forward by the team of Norman Mailer for mayor and Breslin for City Council president in the 1969 Democratic Party primary. They proposed making New York City the 51st state. Considering the historic imbalance of tax dollars going to both Albany and Washington versus how much state and federal assistance is received in return, Big Apple residents would be better off keeping funds sent to Albany. Two U.S. senators could ensure a more equitable return of federal assistance to New York City. Imagine over the past 48 years how much financially better off the city could have been as a state. Larry Penner

Chaser of bad pols

Anchorage: RIP, Jimmy Breslin. We of an older age who knew that lies and misbehavior of politicians would be fearlessly reported need him now more than ever. I used to live in Midwood, then the West Village and then Tribeca before Alaska, all thanks to greedy landlords and the New York City politicians who expect their campaign contributions.

William T. Jones

Don’t stop

Manhattan: Aw, Jimmy, say it ain’t so. Tell us another.

Susan A. Stark

Immortal words

Aventura, Fla.: Jimmy Breslin was the best columnist in the nation for more than 50 years. He was a master at telling the story of the day, but also had command of the entire scope of the times. As a former Miami Herald reporter and editor, I consider his loss far too early. His words will live on for decades. Gerald Schwartz

Written history

San Francisco: I was saddened to learn of the death of Jimmy Breslin. His poignant 1963 column about the funeral of President John F. Kennedy, which centered on Clifton Pollard, the man who dug Kennedy’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery and called it an honor, struck a remarkable chord with readers and revolutionized journalism. In the Nora Ephron-penned movie “When Harry Met Sally,” one of the characters paid Breslin the ultimate compliment for any wordsmith, saying: “He’s the reason I became a writer.” Breslin left his mark on New York, on journalism, and on the world.

Stephen A. Silver

Jimmy in the house

Wellesley, Mass.: What a great obit for Jimmy. You hit the nail on the head — “yeah.” He was one of a kind — a diamond that could never be polished! His first assignment was in Boston in the late 1950s — when he moved in with us in Newton — with the Record or Globe. My dad, Jack Curtin, his cousin, lived with Jimmy, his mother, Fran, and grandmother and other siblings!

Carol Curtin Walsh

A proper sendoff

Whitestone: Repeating the words of another impressive author, Pete Hamill, I must also say, “I thought he would just go on and on forever.” Thank you, Daily News, for commemorating Jimmy Breslin in the truly fine way this “fighter for the powerless” deserved! As Mike Lupica stated, “There was never anyone like him, and there will never be anyone like him!”Leonore Brooks

Turned him down

Hopewell Junction, N.Y.: I met Jimmy Breslin while I was an electrician at the Daily News Building in the 1980s, right after he won his Pulitzer Prize. One coffee break in the hallway, he asked me to talk on the phone with his wife. He asked me to tell his wife how much I earned an hour. Instead, I asked her how she could live with a man that smoked stinky cigars. He grabbed the phone from my hand and cursed me. He wanted to know what I earned for some reason — maybe because I was a woman. And he used his wife thinking I would tell her. He was always looking for a story. I got the last laugh. It was none of his business.

Debra Hall

He stood up for her

Bronx: I drove a truck for the Daily News. I started shaping up as a 17-year-old with a learner’s permit in the days before sexual harassment was the ticket to a big-figure payout it is today. Jimmy Breslin kept me safe during lunch at Louie’s East. The News cafeteria was not open 24/7, so we ate at the bar across the street. Such a kind, funny man. It was an honor to share his table. No one dropped their pants in his presence. Now I’m a lawyer, but I don’t push harassment cases. Cathi Swett

Who will step up?

Bronx: When are the Jimmy Breslins of the press, that is, if there are any with big enough cojones, going to make this classless, incompetent and lunatic of a President that the Michael Dabin/New York Daily News Electoral College geniuses shoved down our throats answer questions face to face instead of hiding and sending these flunkies in front of the cameras to lie for him every time his little hands start tweeting outrageous lies? This President needs to have an independent psychiatric evaluation done to convince the world that he is not afflicted with any mental disorder. Virgilio Carballo

A family tradition

Forest Hills: I have been reading the Daily News for over 40 years, and my best memories are reading Jimmy Breslin’s columns to my dad. We would laugh and/or cry over his beautiful stories. He always wrote through the eyes of the regular people of this city. He was one in a million and will never be forgotten. RIP, Jimmy.

Libby Gurgis

To go the extra mile for Breslin

Burlington, Ontario: I cried today as never before reading about Jimmy Breslin. I am a relocated Bostonian now living in Canada. When living in Boston, I drove to Harvard Square to the newsstand in the middle of the square for the Daily News to get my Breslin fix for the week. What a gem. I would love to hear him kick the stuffing out of our tangerine phony in the White House. Jimmy, Trump was made for you. What a loss. As I type this, tears are running down my face. I have not stopped crying. Rest in peace, my friend, my hero. John Sullivan