Remembering Joe Wood

I met Joe Wood in 1992, after mutual friends suggested that I might ask him to write for Dissent. I remember liking him immediately. He was an interesting mix: he was blunt, almost fierce, in his opinions, yet in his manner he struck me as one of the gentlest people I’d ever met.

We got into the habit of having dinner two or three times a year. It was always fun to talk with him; you could count on him to put the ball in play, conversationally. He almost always had some theme, some q...