Various Happenstances of Seth

April 23, 2005

   So, as you can probably tell, I haven't been updating this terribly frequently.* The reason for this is simple: I have a column that I'm supposed to be writing. And I need to come up with funny ideas every week. So while two years ago if I had a funny idea or event happen to me once a week, I might put it on my WSO blog, nowadays I need to save them for the column. And so although you can still read the twisted machinations of my mind in my column, so can other people. So what can I offer you as a reward for looking at this blog in spite of the fact that it's almost never updated? Well, tidbits from my life, I guess.

   Unfortunately**, my life is incredibly dull. Most of the minutia are either completely uninteresting (e.g. Tuesday I clipped my toenails, most of them came out okay, but a few were jagged and I hope they don't puncture my socks.) or the kind of thing that I'd just as soon not commit to pixels where other people might read them (e.g. I've been drinking a lot of water recently and notice that it's making my urine much more clear.), which is why I don't update here much.

   However, yesterday I went to the annual Williamstown Library Book Sale. This was very awesome. And while reading a list of books may not seem interesting to you, the fact that I was able to acquire all of them really pleases me, and so I will list them here anyway. First, the books that are not strictly humor:

(Classics) The Prince - Machiavelli, Shogun - James Clavell

(Biographies) Autobiography of Malcolm X - Alex Haley, Einstein the Life and Times - Clark, Autobiography of Ben Franklin - Russel Nye, It's Always Something - Gilda Radner, I am Jackie Chan - Jackie Chan, Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman

(Sci-Fi/Fantasy) The Turing Option - Harry Harrison, Wizard's First Rule - Goodkind, Mote in God's Eye - Niven and Pournelle

The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey    Because my best friend from highschool recommended it long ago.

Ascension - White Wolf     Because it was a Role Playing book for a buck.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams    Because when I see this book available cheaply, I must purchase it. I've bought at least eight copies, probably more, although three or four have been lent or lost.

   And then the glorious humor books. First, I managed to find some good comics, along with a few big humor collections:

(Collections/Comics) 5600 Jokes for all occasions - Knapp, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things - Panati, Big book of American Humor - Novak, Anguished English - Richard Lederer, Crazy English - Richard Lederer, The Limerick (1&2) - G. Legman, Fortieth Anniversary Cartoons - New Yorker, Far Side Gallery 3 - Gary Larson, Essential Calvin and Hobbes - Bill Waterson, Wizard of Id Strike the Sot - Parker and Hart, Doonesbury Chronicles - Gary Trudeau.

   The Wizard of Id book is mainly for the purpose of giving to my father. We'll see whether I manage to see him again before he reads this entry. The Limerick books each have over 2500 limericks, almost all of which are dirty and not very funny. Between my old column in the Projo and the OEDILF now, I've probably written over 2500 stanzas of limerick too. And I have enough trouble finding publishers already, but if I were to organize them all into a compendium of limericks, it would be no worse than the two now on my bookshelf.

   And finally, the actual humor books. I was pleased to be able to pick up a nice chronological range, from Jonathan Swift to Jon Stewart, so my shelf will now have more humor spanning the decades:

(Humor through the ages) Tale of a Tub - Jonathan Swift, Unmaking of a Mayor - William F. Buckley, I am not a crook - Art Buchwald, Sunshine Sketches of a little town - Steven Leacock, We are still married - Garrison Keiller, Happy to be here - Garrison Keiller, Last Bus to Albequerque - Lewis Grizzard, From Coast to Coast - Bob and Ray, I lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression - Erma Bombeck, When you look like your passport photo, it's time to go home - Erma Bombeck, Cruel Shoes - Steve Martin, Dave Barry Slept Here - Dave Barry, Dave Barry's Bad Habits - Dave Barry, Napalm and Silly Putty - George Carlin, Stupid White Men - Michael Moore, Oh, the things I Know! - Al Franken, The Funny Thing Is... - Ellen DeGeneres, Obliviously On He Sails - Calvin Trillin, America the Book - Jon Stewart

   Finding another Bob and Ray book is always a catch, as they are one of the funniest humor duos ever to work together, and yet people today just don't know about them. More Dave Barry is always good, of course, but if I had to name one book that I was happiest to find there, it would have to be Jon Stewart's. It came out so recently that I never imagined I'd find it at a book sale, so when I did I spent 5 seconds being stunned and then grabbed it as fast as I could. It's on my short list of new acquisitions I want to read immediately.

   And why do I love book sales so much? Because not only do I now possess all this wonderful material, but after buying all of the above books, comics, collections, many hardcovers, and many paperbacks, my grand total came to $56.

May Day! May Day! -->

<-- Burnted Potatoes

Blog Home

*"Well," you might say, "I agree you haven't updated frequently, but you have updated terribly." Who asked you, anyway?

**Actually, it's probably fortunate that my life is so dull. There's an old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." Given that things are fairly stable now, perhaps I should be happy that nothing exciting (I'm on fire! Someone filled my room with poisonous cobras!) is happening.

All work on these pages is copyright Seth Brown. If you are sharing it, please give attribution. If you want to reprint it, please contact me first.