Thank you, Chris, for making us laugh

Author of Under the Palapa died last week in Puerto Vallarta

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Mexico News Daily | Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Writing humor is a challenge: readers can be just as easily offended as they can be amused and in an age where online commenting has become a magnet for the most vile and hateful insults, writers need a thick skin.

That’s what Mexico News Daily columnist Chris Dalton found when he began sending us a weekly column last July. He even took a break from writing Under the Palapa so as “to heal” but came back earlier this month, seemingly intent on soldiering on, determined to make people laugh.

But, alas, Chris’ June 4 column was his last. He died last week in Puerto Vallarta.

Chris Dalton wrote 32 pieces for Mexico News Daily, most of which had previously appeared on a regional blog.

But it was new material to many of our readers and most enjoyed Chris’ tales about looking for and buying a retirement condominium in Puerto Vallarta. He recalled the many trials and tribulations of the process, telling tales that generated lots of comments, most of which were encouraging and positive at the beginning.

But there came times when some readers failed to see the funny side of his stories, or saw them as insulting, offensive or even racist. There were several occasions when angry readers offered spiteful responses, canceled their subscriptions to the Email News Update or wrote to ask why we continued to publish such “rubbish.”

But Chris never intended to insult or offend anyone and was far from being a racist.

We gave serious consideration to readers who urged that we drop his column but the fact was that Chris usually made me laugh with his clever turn of phrase.

Not always, mind you. There were occasions when I considered not running a column but was later glad I did when it was greeted with positive and friendly feedback in the comments section.

One of the best responses I saw to some badgering he received online was the suggestion that reading the column was not obligatory. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. Good advice.

Chris’ background was in film. A Canadian, he produced more than 4,000 television commercials and was a producer and production manager for television and movies in a career that spanned three decades.

Five years ago, he and his wife Michelle began looking for a retirement property in Mexico, finally settling on a condo in Puerto Vallarta.

His readers know the rest of the story, which began here.

On April 30 we published his third-to-last piece in which he wrote about turning 70, a column that has me chuckling again now. He lamented that his runs on the malecón had become more like a shuffle than a run and that he could no longer squat — “it’s just a lean-down kind of thing now.”

He also wrote that just prior to his birthday he decided to make a lit of all the people he had upset over the last 70 years and ask forgiveness, a chore that “took longer than I thought.”

Had there actually been such a list a few Mexico News Daily readers might have been on it. But the number would have been far fewer than those who read his columns and enjoyed them.

RIP, Chris. I hope that wherever you are, you’re comfortably settled under a palapa.

—Tony Richards, Publisher