Tag Archives: humor

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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The Devil’s Dictionary: Acquaintance

Posted on August 23, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor to obscure, and intimate when he is rich and famous.” 

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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Robert Maynard Hutchins on the Caprice of the Law

Posted on August 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

“The law may…depend on what the judge has had for breakfast.”

Robert Maynard Hutchins

“The Autobiography of an Ex-Law Student,” American Law School Review, Apr. 1934

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Write It Right: Chance for Opportunity

Posted on August 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Chance for Opportunity. ‘He had a good chance to succeed.’”

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

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The Algonquin Wits: George S. Kaufman on Geography

Posted on August 17, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Conducting a survey for a question-and-answer book he was editing, George Oppenheimer once quizzed Kaufman on geography—a subject that thoroughly bored G.S.K. One of the questions read: ‘What is the longest river in South America?’

After a moment. Kaufman queried, ‘Are you sure it’s in South America?’”

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

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Rotten Reviews: Annie Dillard

Posted on August 17, 2021 | Leave a comment

 “Rotten Reviews: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

‘I have never seen frogs in Virginia ‘shout and glare’…”

Loren Eiseley, Washington Post Book World

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: Casket for Coffin

Posted on August 16, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Casket for Coffin. A needless euphemism affected by undertakers.”

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

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