Tag Archives: humor

Write It Right: Cunning for Amusing

Posted on July 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Cunning for Amusing. Usually said of a child, or pet. This is pure Americanese, as is its synonym, ‘cute.’”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

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Bon Mot

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Bon Mot  A clever, well-phrased observation or remark; witticism. Pl. bons mots, bon mots.

‘The literary Jews also sprinkled their prose with Yiddish bon mots in lieu of the Latin that the Southerners favored.’ Richard Kostalanetz, Literary Politics in America”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

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Rotten Reviews: Two for John Gardner

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Rotten Reviews: The Wreckage of Agathon

’”Wreckage’ is appropriate…more hysterical than historical.’

Library Journal

Rotten Reviews: October Light

‘Within this great welter of word, symbols, and gassy speechifying and half-hatched allegory there was once, I suspect, a good lean novel, but I can’t find it….’

Peter Prescott, Newsweek”

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.   

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Write It Right: Criticize for Condemn or Disparage

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Criticize for Condemn or Disparage. Criticism is not necessarily censorious; it may approve.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Yankee

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Yankee, n. In Europe, an American. In the Northern States of our Union, a New Englander. In the Southern States, the word is unknown. (See DAMYANK.)”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

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Write It Right: Critically for Seriously

Posted on July 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Critically for Seriously. ‘He has long been critically ill.’ A patient is critically ill only at the crisis of his disease.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

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Jose Ortega y Gasset on Learning English

Posted on July 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

“To learn English, you must begin by thrusting the jaw forward, almost clenching the teeth, and practically immobilizing the lips. In this way the English produce the series of unpleasant little mews of which their language consists.”

Jose Ortega y Gasset

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

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Rotten Reviews: Mickelsson’s Ghosts

Posted on July 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

“…dreadfully long and padded and it often degenerates into drivel…as a philosophical novel, it is a sham. Stripped of its excesses, however, it does not have enough substance to have made a good Raymond Carver short story.”

Saturday Review

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.   

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Write It Right: Convoy for Escort

Posted on July 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Convoy for Escort. ‘A man-of-war acted as the convoy to the flotilla.’ The flotilla is the convoy, the man-of-war the escort.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Government

Posted on July 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Government, n. A modern Chronos who devours his own children. The priesthood are charged with the duty of preparing them for his tooth.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

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