Tag: Humor

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Book: When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

Cover of Book: When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
Either this book cover was very upsetting to the man sitting two seats away from me, or my hair was attacking someone without me noticing. I’m still unsure why he kept looking at the book/me reading and then away…

When You are Engulfed in Flames
by David Sedaris
published by Hachette (Back Bay Books)
2008

David Sedaris is a storyteller, and whether that story is a real one about having a truck driver attempt to persaude him to exchange sexual acts, or an imagined one about majoring in Patricide at Princeton, he tells these stories in a dry, engaging, and periodically distressing way.

I laughed loudly enough that I may have alarmed the neighbors. (To soften this strong endorsement, I admit that I laughed less often than I did while reading Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls: some of this relates to being familiar with his work, and laughing quietly rather than loudly. You know what I mean.) The only repeat story was the Normandy creepy-old-man story, but all others were new to me.

I recommend this collection if you like his other story collections.

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Books: Department of Mind-Blowing Theories by Tom Gauld

Cover of Tom Gauld’s latest book

Department of Mind-Blowing Theories
by Tom Gauld
published by Drawn + Quarterly
2020

This is a charming book of science cartoons, which had previously appeared in New Scientist magazine, collected here by the excellent comic/graphic novel publishers at Drawn + Quarterly. They are subtle, funny, brainy cartoons with really fantastic contraptions, many explosions, heartless thesis committees, and at least one appearance of Cthulhu.

This book is for you if: you wish the text message “LOL!” really stood for “Let’s Observe Lobsters!”

(Speaking of LOL, I did laugh out loud at the bear cave strip, and several others.)

I want all of the contraptions.

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News/Humor: Do Not Ingest Poisons Touted by the President

Humor is what I’m using to get through this situation, because I’d prefer to laugh than to dwell on the lack of understanding across segments of my country of basic survival concepts.

Opinion | America, please don’t put bleach inside yourself like the president says

This should go without saying, but: Please, America, don’t inject or put disinfectant inside yourself like the president talked about. It is not good for you. Actually, it is bad. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant” is just a metaphorical saying. Also, do not put a “light” “inside” yourself until we can figure out what the president is trying to say.

I think my favorite of many good quotes is:

I know it seems counterintuitive, but given the choice to listen to a plastic bottle or the president of the United States, I beg you: Listen to the plastic bottle.

Alexandra Petri’s writing for WaPo is topical and very, very funny. (She does Twitter well, too!)

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The Onion: Deepwater Horizon Anniversary

BP Celebrates 10th Anniversary Of Deepwater Horizon By Dyeing Gulf Of Mexico Black
PORT FOURCHON, LA—On the very spot off the Louisiana coast where the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and left the company’s mark on the region forever, BP celebrated the 10th anniversary of its historic, 210-million-gallon oil spill Monday by dyeing the entire Gulf of Mexico black. “Ten year…
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