That's What Friends Are For: Laughing, getting drunk together, telling all...and making celebratory, determinedly silly websites like
this one. Generally, private
jokes are painfully unfunny but, when the vicarious instinct kicks in, other people's gregarious
joie de vivre is contagious, touching - and great fun.
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Nov 9, 2003 -
7 comments
The Funniest Writer Not Writing Today ...or yesterday, or last year, or even
for ages, has to be
Fran Lebowitz. So it was quite refreshing to find this little website devoted to her scant and miserly online presence. The latest publication featuring her name is, in fact, the menu of the newly-opened
Café Lebowitz in Manhattan's Nolita. Well, the author of the two masterpieces of wit,
Social Studies and
Metropolitan Life, recently anthologized in The
Fran Lebowitz Reader, always warned us she was
pathologically lazy... But the
old, occasional, lazy (but always witty)
interview or
odd, random
quotation is no compensation. I think she's up there with S. J. Perelman. Robert Benchley or Dorothy Parker. If only she'd actually
do some work! Are there any other wilfully and chronically unproductive writer you miss terribly and would force out of retirement if you could?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Apr 14, 2003 -
16 comments
Cats Can Be Workaholics Too, You Know! Some, like Doncaster's sixteen
pest-control experts, hate being out of work so much they're desperately looking for new fields of employment. Others are important tools of
bibliographic research. Non-intellectual types prefer
police work and other less desk-bound jobs.
Shopcat.com has compiled a
state index of these working stiffs so grateful citizens may more easily seek them out and warmly shake their paws: Good work, guys! How can anyone still imply you're a bunch of lazy, selfish bastards whose breath smells of cat food? [
My favourite employee, who's many a time given me her signature cold-shoulder treatment is Matilda, the official recepcionist and furniture-duster at the Algonquin Hotel in New York.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Sep 23, 2002 -
13 comments
Feeling Peckish? Like a big bald eagle? Order one now! Humour might be one way of trying to protect endangered animals but the
bushmeat trade is no joke and
fighting it is damn difficult, probably as difficult as fighting world poverty. Does anyone else feel that these jokes just aren't funny anymore?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Sep 19, 2002 -
9 comments
John Ashcroft, I'm Only Dancing --- What goes on behind closed doors in the Oval Office, late at night? The Taliban may be holding out, but they have yet to experience the cringe-inducing trauma of the President's disco dancing. They should fear for their lives. (
Number one in e-mail in France, Italy and Portugal, right now. Oh, the excitement!)
N.B. A "no comments" link in the old stylee, for entertainment purposes only. Be sure to click on all the left-hand side options, specially No.2. Flash or something probably required; no idea actually. ;-)
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Nov 5, 2001 -
5 comments
A Little Light Relief - and Brush Up Your English While You're At It. In the spirit of poking fun at one's own flesh and blood - and respecting all those who aren't - I offer the most appalling tribute to Shakespeare's and Emerson's language since time itself began.
I give you, ladies and gentlemen, the great Portuguese scholar Pedro Carolino, whose "English As She Is Spoke" Mark Twain considered to be the funniest book ever written.
Start with "Familiar Dialogues 1" and, if you've still been able to keep a straight face, try "Idiotisms and Proverbs" for the full effect...
(Thanks to Ganz's Humor Page)
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Sep 20, 2001 -
19 comments
