When the going gets tough, the tough get empirical.

He rediscovered mondegreens and invented pele dancing He writes satire memoir political comment and anarchic humor. Carroll was born in Los Angeles and raised in nearby Pasadena. Locally he is best known for his moderate-to-liberal politics and his odd self-referential humor.

Carroll has long lived in Oakland with his wife author Tracy Johnston and two cats named Pancho and Bucket occasional subjects of his columns. Before becoming a newspaper columnist he worked on the editorial staff at Rolling Stone magazine (assistant editor 1970) where he wrote "Voice Denies Nixon Drug Use" Rags magazine Oui a Playboy spinoff (editor 1972); the Village Voice (West Coast editor 1974); WomenSports magazine (Consulting editor); and New West magazine (editor 1978 where he won a National Magazine Award in 1979). Jon Carroll.