Tag Archives: literary oddities

Biblia Pauperum

“Literally, Bible of the poor. Book, either manuscript or printed, of the late Middle Ages containing juxtaposed scenes from the Old and New Testaments.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

The Devil’s Dictionary: Presidency

“Presidency, n. The greased pig in the field game of American politics.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000.

Sinclair Lewis on Advertising

“Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.”

Sinclair Lewis

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

Rotten Rejections: Sartoris by William Faulkner

“If the book had plot and structure, we might suggest shortening and revisions but it is so diffuse that I don’t think this would be any use. My chief objection is that you don’t have any story to tell.”

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

Left Brain/ Right Brain, Yin and Yang

“Left Brain/Right Brain is the innate conflict within our own minds. It is also the creative balance between that part of our mind which rationalizes, orders, creates processes and is logical, analytical and objective (the left brain) and that which is intuitive, thoughtful and subjective (the right brain). The creativity of an artist, a writer, or an entrepreneur is a right brain concept, which requires a daring, free-spirited, imaginative, uninhibited, unpredictable and revolutionary mindset. The critical thinking required by an academic or an administrator needs the strengths of the left brain: reductive, logical, focused, conservative, practical, and feasible. For anything to work well, there needs to be not only a balance but a fusion,

The most successful universal image of this is the T’ai Chi diagram: an egg composed of equal quantities of opposites: yolk and white, Yin and Yang. Yin is female, dark, earth-associated, passive, receptive, and lunar. Yant is associated with male energies: light, Heaven, sun and the active principle in nature. Together, they hatch mankind.”

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.

The Algonquin Wits: Franklin Pierce Adams on Confidentiality

“Ninety-two percent of the stuff told you in confidence you couldn’t get anyone else to listen to.”

Franklin Pierce Adams

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

The Devil’s Dictionary: Corporation

“Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

Book of Answers: Who Eighty-Sixed Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald?

“What hotel threw out newlyweds F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre? The Biltmore Hotel in New York City, following their wedding on April 3, 1920. The management asked them to leave because of their unseemly behavior.”

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

Rotten Reviews: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

“The most insipid, ridiculous play that I ever saw in my life.”

 Samuel Pepys, Diary

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

Ben Hecht on History, Chronology, and Journalism

“Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.”

Ben Hecht

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