Tag Archives: humor

Fran Lebowitz on Sleep

Posted on March 29, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Sleep is death without the responsibility.”

Fran Lebowitz, Metropolitan Life “Why I Love Sleep” (1978)

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

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Dorothy Parker on Hollywood Money

Posted on March 1, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Speaking of Hollywood money, Mrs. Parker said: ‘It’s congealed snow; it melts in your hand.’”

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

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Write It Right: Demean for Debase or Degrade

Posted on January 18, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Demean for Debase or Degrade. ‘He demeaned himself by accepting charity.’ The word relates, not to meanness, but to demeanor, conduct, behavior. One may demean oneself with dignity and credit.”

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

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Rotten Reviews: The Odd Women

Posted on January 18, 2024 | Leave a comment

“A generous, sensitive, intelligent and literate book that despite its generosity, sensitivity, humanity, and literacy, manages to be a deadly bore.”

The New Yorker

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

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Michael Korda on Hypocrisy and Ambition

Posted on January 5, 2024 | Leave a comment

“An ounce of hypocrisy is worth a pound of ambition.”

Michael Korda

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

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Book of Answers: Henry Fielding

Posted on January 5, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Whom did novelist Henry Fielding summon to court for the murder of the English language? Poet laureate Colley Cibber in 1740. Fielding issued the summons under the pseudonym ‘Captain Hercules Vinegar.’”

Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

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Plutarch at the Barber Shop

Posted on November 4, 2023 | Leave a comment

“A prating barber asked Archelaus how he would be trimmed. He answered, ‘In silence.’”

Plutarch

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

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Alexandre Dumas on Education

Posted on October 13, 2023 | Leave a comment

“How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it.”

Alexandre Dumas fils

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

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Comma Spice

Posted on October 13, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Comma Splice: Improper use of a comma, above all between clauses requiring either a conjunction or a full stop (semicolon, colon, or period). Also COMMA BLUNDER, COMMA FAULT.

‘Mr. Mudrick is rude, contentious, incorrigible comma spliced, headlong, raunchy, scornful and know-it-all.’ John Leonard, The New York Times.”

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

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Write it Right: Deliver

Posted on October 13, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Deliver. ‘He delivered an oration,’ or ‘delivered a lecture.’ Say, He made an oration or gave a lecture.”

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

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