Ha. The illustrious Columbia Journalism Review, stuck in the no-fucking-news months with the rest of us, tracked down John Quinlan, the Sioux City Journal reporter who wrote the most Onion-like real news story of all time, which will forever stand as our single favorite work of journalism. ("Olive Garden arrives" in Sioux City. That guy!). And he's very even-keeled about his newfound internet fame. "I wanted to have a little fun with the story," he says...

They’d been wanting an Olive Garden for years. They’ve done surveys over the years—what restaurants would you like to see in Sioux City? For twenty years, the Olive Garden was at the top of the list. I didn’t have a beat. I was on the copy desk for fifteen years and was just getting back into writing. I had been doing some faith-based and medical stories. The business editor had some kind of problem that day, so I filled in and did the story. It was a boring story, but people were expecting something kind of big, because to them it was a big event. I wanted to have a little fun with the story.

Sioux City residents were "camping outside for two months" when the Olive Garden opened.

Let it be noted that John Quinlan is a good-humored man who is, in fact, a real journalist who has written real stories for many years. I salute you, sir. With breadsticks.

[CJR]