Tag Archives: humor

H.L. Mencken on Morality

Posted on September 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 percent of them are wrong.”

H.L. Mencken

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

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 Rotten Reviews: 10:30 on a Summer Night

Posted on September 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

“…has the proud air of saying in her every painful, glottal line, ‘Hup for prose.’”

Hortense Callisher, The Nation

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

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Adherent

Posted on September 5, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Adherent, n. A follower who has not yet obtained all that he expects to get.” 

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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The Algonquin Wits: Robert Benchley on His Dismissal from the World of Advertising

Posted on September 1, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Benchley spent a short, highly unsuccessful apprenticeship in the advertising department of Curtis Publishing Company, about which he recalled: ‘When I left Curtis (I was given plenty of time to get my hat and coat) I was advised not to stick to advertising. They said I was too tall, or something. I forget just what the reason was they gave.’”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

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Write It Right: Clever for Obliging

Posted on August 31, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Clever for Obliging. In this sense the word was once in general use in the United States, but is now seldom heard and life here is less insupportable.”

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

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Write It Right: Citizen for Civilian

Posted on August 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Citizen for Civilian. A soldier may be a citizen, but is not a civilian.”

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

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S.J. Perelman on Freelance Writers

Posted on August 28, 2021 | Leave a comment

“The dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he’s given the freedom to starve anywhere.”

S.J. Perelman

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

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The Algonquin Wits: Alice Duer Miller Charges Aleck Woolcott

Posted on August 28, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Novelist and Round Table frequenter Alice Duer Miller once paid off a loss at cards to Aleck Woollcott, informing him: ‘You, sir, are the lowest form of life—a cribbage pimp.’”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

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Rotten Reviews: The Ginger Man

Posted on August 28, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Disgust, indignation, and boredom—those are the most likely responses to be anticipated among readers of The Ginger Man. No doubt the book will also get a few screams of praise from those who habitually confuse the effects of art with the effects of shock and sensation… This rather nasty, rather pompous novel gives us, in all, a precocious small boy’s view of life, the boy having been spoiled somehow and allowed to indulge in sulks and tantrums and abundant self-pity.”

Chicago Tribune

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: Chivalrous

Posted on August 23, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Chivalrous. The word is popularly used in the Southern States only, and commonly has reference to men’s manner toward women. Archaic, stilted, and fantastic.”

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

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