SUISMAN "SALUTES" SIMON. Blog About Town's ongoing coverage of John Simon's career continues with Charlie Suisman's appreciation from Manhattan User's Guide.

Kicking Him When He’s Down
Finally, finally, John Simon has been given the heave-ho from New York mag. We’ve waited 20 years for this. In all this time, he's been forgotten but not gone.

Well, actually, we didn’t forget. We didn’t forget his ad hominem attacks on actresses, during which Simon relished any opportunity to criticize their looks. And we didn’t forget 1985.

That year, during intermission of a play about AIDS, Simon said in earshot of Liz Smith: "I can’t wait until they all get it and die; then I won’t have to see any more of these plays." It was only days later that Simon dismissed the play Octette Bridge Club in his review as "faggot nonsense."

At the time, we wrote a letter complaining to then-editor Ed Kosner, who wrote back this (PDF). Current New York editor Adam Moss was gracious about Simon’s tenure and his departure. But we don’t have to be: John Simon was a nasty piece of work who made New York, the magazine and the city, the worse for his presence.