Tag Archives: humor

Jean Rostand on Adulthood

Posted on August 1, 2025 | Leave a comment

“To be adult is to be alone.”

Jean Rostand

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

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The Doubter’s Companion: Biographical Films

Posted on August 1, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Biographical Films: Since attention to historical detail ruins filmed drama, the essential property of biographical cinema is that it improves in quality by not telling the truth.

These films, whether describing the lives of American presidents or criminals, French generals or Russian kings, are among the beneficiaries of the ‘big lie’ idea. As a result they have helped to create a modern mythology which erases the Western idea of intellectual inquiry and returns to the pre-intellectual tradition of mythological gods and heroes. This is the context in which the portraits of John Kennedy, James Hoffa, Napoleon and so on can most easily be understood.”

Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.

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Rotten Reviews: Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language

Posted on July 18, 2025 | Leave a comment

“…a copyeditor’s despair, a propounder of endless riddles.”

Atlantic Monthly

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

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Brian Aldiss on Civilization

Posted on July 11, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Civilization is the distance man has placed between himself and his excreta.”

Brian Aldiss

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

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The Doubter’s Companion: Bees

Posted on July 4, 2025 | Leave a comment

Bees: In his Philosophical Dictionary Voltaire points out that bees seem superior to humans because one of their secretions is useful. Nothing a human secretes is of use; quite the contrary. Whatever we produce makes us disagreeable to be around.

The bee’s social organization also invites comparisons. If the queen were to be removed and the drones were able to convince the worker bees to go on working while they stepped in as managers, what would happen to our supply of honey?

Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.

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Write It Right: Depot for Station

Posted on June 27, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Depot for Station. ‘Railroad depot.’ A depot is a place of deposit; as, a depot of supply for an army.”

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

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Fred Allen on the Decline of Discourse

Posted on June 20, 2025 | Leave a comment

“During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoying big talk.”

Fred Allen

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

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James Boren’s Rules for Bureaucrats

Posted on June 6, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Guidelines for Bureaucrats:

  1. When in charge, ponder.
  2. When in trouble, delegate.
  3. When in doubt, mumble.”

James H. Boren

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

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Russell Green on the Advantages of a Classical Education

Posted on April 25, 2025 | Leave a comment

“The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth which it prevents you from achieving.”

Russell Green

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

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Rotten Reviews: The Female Eunuch

Posted on April 11, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Bores aid no revolution.”

Library Journal

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

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