Yes, children, there once were widely syndicated general-interest columns. You don't hear of them much any more. Heck, newspapers of the old sort are themselves an endangered species, and the old-style columnists (humorous like Erma Bombeck, politically analytical like Peter Lisagor, self-appointed tribunes of the working stiff like Jimmy Breslin). Perhaps it's just that we don't need gatekeepers any more to tell us who is good at spouting opinions, analyzing public issues, or making us laugh. Good for us. But back when there were still syndicated columnists, one of them -- one of the most popular of them at his peak in the 1980s -- was Bob Greene. I haven't given any thought to Bob Greene in years. But for no good reason, I've come across some material lately about him and about the scandal in which his career ended in 2002. Let's not discuss the scandal now. You can read about it here if you want . But that was, as I say, in 2002, and by that ti...