BY ANDREW SMITH / Collections of old newspaper columns often are painful to read. With time, context and currency have faded, and observations that once seemed fresh or witty now seem trite and stale.
Almost 25 years ago, when I emerged from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University with a shiny new journalism degree, there was a debate in the business about whether a reporter needed such an education to succeed. Some things never change. My first job was at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.…