Louis Malcolm (Mal) Boyd, popularly known as L. M. Boyd (June 9, 1927 in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

– January 22, 2007, in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

) was a

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

whose nationally syndicated column was a collection of miscellaneous

trivia Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value. It can be contrasted with general knowledge and common sense. Latin Etymology The ancient Romans used the word ''triviae'' to describe where one road split or forked ...

l and amusing facts. Boyd was raised in

Chimacum Chimacum is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, located in the center of the primary agricultural area of the eastern Olympic Peninsula. It was named after the Chimakum (also spelled Chemakum or Chimacum) ...

and

Bremerton, Washington Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 37,729 at the 2010 census and an estimated 41,405 in 2019, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremerto ...

. He joined the Army at the age of 16 and worked for the '' Stars and Stripes''. After having worked at the (Spokane) '' Spokesman-Review'', the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'', the '' San Francisco Chronicle'' and ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'', and the '' Houston Chronicle'', in 1963 he moved to the '' Seattle Post-Intelligencer'', where he began his trivia column. The column ran locally under the name Mike Mailway, the name Mailway having been derived from the digits in Boyd's telephone number at the ''Post-Intelligencer''. In 1968 it was picked up by the '' San Francisco Chronicle'', where it was renamed ''The Grab Bag,'' the name by which it is most commonly known, though it ran under other titles in other markets. It eventually appeared in nearly 400 newspapers. Grab Bag often featured the occasional asides of "Our Love and War Man," a character that presented items developed by him with his wife, Patricia. Boyd was "Love" and his wife "War"—although his wife Patricia maintained it was the other way around—he told Chronicle writer Sam Whiting in 2000. To another reporter Boyd said that "sometimes he's the Love part, sometimes atriciais." The column led to the formation of

Crown Syndicate A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

by Boyd and his wife, which went on to offer several other columns and puzzles. The couple met in 1960, when Mr. Boyd was writing a column for the Houston Chronicle called Dial Watchem, which fielded reader complaints about broken signs and potholes. He had hired Patricia as an assistant. They were married 45 years and raised her six children. Boyd also had three children from a previous marriage. Boyd announced his retirement at the end of 2000, but popular demand brought the column back for a few more years. The final column officially ran on August 7, 2004, when Boyd was 77.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, L. M. Writers from Spokane, Washington American columnists 1927 births 2007 deaths