Who Else Might Have a Cold

Relating "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" to today's personality profiles

I have never been interested in Frank Sinatra. I know, I know he is a singer who reached music industry heights unheard of before or after his days. Reading "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," by Gay Talese has introduced me not only to an amazing personality but also to a new style of profile writing.

Will I ever have the talent, passion, or ability to write about another person with such description, flow and intimacy, yet all the while holding myself and the reader at a distance…so connected to the personality in question yet no more privy to the intimate details of their life than before?

I can't think of one among my peers worthy of comparison to Sinatra, people like him don't exist in my world. But without a doubt within people all around me there are lives, details and achievements worthy of such dignified exposure to the public eye as Talese gave Sinatra. The young pastor toiling in the slums in hopes of improving one child's life, the singer uncompromising in her stand for purity, the drug addict turned youth pastor… and the list goes on.

These are the stories worth sharing as Talese did, with simplicity, weaving the background and the small everyday details together with a claim to fame. Taking such a person and making them real to the reader, someone they feel they can walk up to and greet as an old friend. Showing their humanity and their greatness in one fluid line of prose.