Tag Archives: literary oddities

Will Rogers on the Advance of Civilization

Posted on July 2, 2021 | Leave a comment

“You can’t say civilization isn’t advancing; in every war they kill you in a new way.”

Will Rogers

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

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Bait and Switch

Posted on July 1, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Bait and Switch (adjective): Describing or pertaining to advertising that offers a product insincerely, with the true intention being to sell another, more expensive or profitable product.

‘Ads that deceive or claims that can’t be backed are no-nos, and techniques such as “bait and switch” in which goods are offered to lure customers to buy higher-priced substitutes are also verboten.’ Bernice Kanner, New York Daily News”

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

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Bear

Posted on June 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Bear, n. In the stock market, a broker who, having sold short, uses his customers’ stocks to break the price.”

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: Build for Make

Posted on June 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Build for Make. ‘Build a fire.’ ‘Build a canal.’ Even ‘build a tunnel’ is not unknown, and probably if the woodchuck is skilled in the American tongue he speaks of building a hole.’”

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

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Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Posted on June 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? A play (1962) by the US playwright Edward Albee (1928-2016) depicting the tense relationship between a sharp-tongued college professor and his embittered wife. Filmed in 1966 with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in the two main roles, the play owed its memorable title to a line of graffiti scribbled in soap on a mirror in a bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village that the author happened visit in the 1950s. The quip, evidently derived from the song title ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf’ from the Disney cartoon The Three Little Pigs (1933), was later redefined by Albee as meaning ‘who’s afraid of living without false illusions.’”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002. 

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Rotten Reviews: What the Light Was Like

Posted on June 28, 2021 | Leave a comment

Rotten Reviews: What the Light Was Like

“…it would be better for Amy Clampitt if, at least for a while, she tucked her notes from Poetry 101 away in a trunk.”

Poetry 

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

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Book of Answers: Jeeves’s Boss

Posted on June 28, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Who was Jeeves’s boss? Bertie Wooster, a young man-about-town in P.G. Wodehouse’s stories beginning with My Man Jeeves (1919). Jeeves was his valet.”

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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The Algonquin Wits: Alexander Woollcott to Corey Ford

Posted on June 24, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Aleck Woollcott once joined Corey Ford at the Ritz Men’s Bar and informed him, ‘Ford, I plan to spend three days at your house in New Hampshire next week.’ Not overly pleased at the prospect of hosting such a demanding guest, Ford uttered a meek ‘That will be swell.’

‘I’ll be the judge of that,’ Woollcott warned.’”

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

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Finance

Posted on June 24, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Finance, n. The art or science of managing revenues and resources for the best advantage or the manager. The pronunciation of this word with the i long and the accent on the first syllable is one of America’s most precious discoveries and possessions.”

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: Business for Right

Posted on June 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Business for Right. ‘He has no business to go there.’”

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

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