Tag Archives: literary oddities

David Letterman on Statistics

Posted on August 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

“USA Today has come out with a new survey; apparently, three out of every four people make up 75 percent of the population.”

David Letterman

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

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Rotten Rejections: The Clan of the Cave Bear

Posted on August 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

“We are very impressed with the depth and scope of your research and the quality of your prose. Nevertheless, the length presents a unique problem, for production costs are rising and the reading public are reluctant to buy expensive novels unless the author has an established reputation such as the one enjoyed by James Michener. In any case, we don’t thing we could distribute enough copies to satisfy you or ourselves.”

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 Algonquin Wits: Robert Benchley on Technology

Posted on August 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Benchley was known for carrying on a constant war with machines and inanimate objects, always coming out the loser. Once he wrote, ‘The hundred and one little bits of wood and metal that go to make up the impedimenta of daily life…each and every one are bent on my humiliation and working together, as on one great team, to bedevil and confuse me and to get me into a neurasthenic’s home before I am sixty. I can’t fight these boys. They’ve got me licked.’”

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

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Benjamin D’Israeli on Truth and Lies

Posted on August 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Circumlocution

Posted on August 5, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Circumlocution, n. A literary trick whereby the writer who has nothing to say breaks it gently to the reader.” 

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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Rotten Reviews: The Handmaid’s Tale

Posted on August 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Norman Mailer, wheezing lewd approval of some graphic images he encountered in the writing of Germaine Greer, remarked that ‘a wind in this prose whistled up the kilt of male conceit.’ Reading Margaret Atwood, I don my kilt but the wind never comes. Just a cold breeze.”

The American Spectator

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

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Bertrand Russell on Religion

Posted on August 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

“One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.”

“Why I Am Not a Christian” (1927)

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

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Rotten Reviews: A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren

Posted on July 29, 2020 | Leave a comment

“…my, how this boy needs editing!”

San Francisco Chronicle

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

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H.L. Mencken on College Football

Posted on July 28, 2020 | Leave a comment

“College football would be more interesting if the faculty played instead of the students—there would be a great increase in broken arms, legs, and necks.”

H.L. Mencken

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

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Truth

Posted on July 26, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Truth, n. An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. Discovery of the truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is the most ancient occupation of the human mind and has a fair prospect of existing with increasing activity until the end of time.”

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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