This list of oddball place names never failed to bring laughter to my classroom when I taught an advisory at a middle school in the North Bronx.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
George Bernard Shaw I, Arms and the Man
“Shaw may one day write a serious and even an artistic play, if he will only repress his irreverent whimsicality, try to clothe his character conceptions in flesh and blood, and realize the difference between knowingness and knowledge.”
William Archer, World
George Bernard Shaw II, Major Barbara
“There are no human beings in Major Barbara: only animated points of view.
William Archer, World
George Bernard Shaw III, Man and Superman
“I think Shaw, on the whole, is more bounder than genius…I couldn’t get on with Man and Superman: it disgusted me.”
Bertrand Russell, letter to G.L. Dickinson
Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Benevolence, n. Subscribing five dollars towards the relief of one’s aged grandfather in the alms house, and publishing it in the newspaper.”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged humor, literary oddities, philosophy/religion
“Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things.”
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, literary oddities
“While entertaining musician-wit Oscar Levant at this new Bucks County home, George Kaufman offered his friend an engaging business proposition (based on Levant’s reputation as a noxious influence): ‘We’ll both walk through the main thoroughfares of Bucks County and I’ll have blueprints in my hand and this will lead people to think that you are going to build and settle down here. The local inhabitants will become panic-stricken and real estate will go down. Then we’ll buy, you won’t build, and we’ll clean up.’”
Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.
Posted in English Language Arts, New York City, Quotes, Reference
Tagged humor, literary oddities
“Perfectionist * Giver * Achiever * Tragic/Romantic * Observer * Contradictor * Enthusiast * Leader * Mediator
The nine-sided enneagram was popularized by the Greek-Armenian spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff (1866-1949) as a way of both analyzing and then reforming character—for the final goal is to achieve a balance of all these aspects. It is also associated with the Kabbalah, while the attributes are close to those of the ideal god-loving Muslim, who is both reformer, helper, achiever, individualist, investigator, loyalist, enthusiast, challenger, and peacemaker.
Gurdjieff’s enneagram was developed by the psychologists Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo to create a personal character map, which you can do easily enough for yourself. By marking your characteristics (on, say, a scale of 1 to 10) you can chart your particular strengths and weaknesses, and then see how these compared to those drawn for you by your friends or a counselor.
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, literary oddities
“Justice, n. A commodity which in a more or less adulterated condition the State sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance, taxes and personal service.”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged humor, literary oddities
“Portnoy’s Complaint (1971)
This looks and sounds like a Jewish novel. It isn’t. Or, if it is, it is not a good one, a true one…it is finally a definitive something or other. I regret that it is not a definitive something.
The best that can be said of Roth’s accomplishment is that Mama Portnoy is a caricature drawn by a master cartoonist, but she’s not more than that…the main trouble with the Jewish family theme is that it has been overwritten.
Our Gang (1971)
Nixon’s rough treatment at Roth’s hands may very well invite more sympathy for him than anything since the Checkers speech.
The Great American Novel (1973)
Roth has, unfortunately, got into such a shouting match with his readers that some of us are going to have to start shouting back.
My Life as a Man (1974)
…a totally solipsistic novel, which may well make it a perfect expression of the times.
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, literary oddities
“Unimportant * Irrelevant * Nonsensical * Embarrassing * Distressing
Patients undergoing Freudian psychoanalysis must be free to say whatever comes into their head, however unimportant, irrelevant, nonsensical, embarrassing, or distressing it might seem to be, and yet be sure of receiving the same level of intent listening from their analyst.”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
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