Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The Abridged Script [probably contains spoilers]
posted on Jun 18, 2008 - View this thread

Stuff Nobody Likes. A short list is provided for your convenience. [via mefi projects]
posted on Apr 7, 2008 - View this thread

A grand allegorical account of the past four decades of human history - or something, is of interest mostly to those of us over forty, but anybody can use the help of The Amazing Dostoevsky machine (new and improved!), to get through Crime and Punishment. Great literature not your thing? Try one woman's elusive search for a marketable, filthy domain name, or check how long you've been on this planet. I'm up to 20284, and counting ...

It's all part of the quirky (insane?) Bonkworld. There's bound to be something here to "feast your sense organs"
posted on May 23, 2007 - View this thread

How to build your very own balsawood crow, the poetry of Dennis Beerpint, Little Severin the Mystic Badger, plus lobster diagrams and of course the Binnacle of the Week await you at Hooting Yard. Celebrated in song and story, Hooting Yard (also a radio show and podcast) is the home of Frank Key, author of such works as Sydney the Bat is Awarded the Order of Lenin and A Complete and Utter History of Norwich.
posted on Apr 12, 2007 - View this thread

"Excuse me," Schwartzman said to the Home Depot man, "can you tell me where to find tar?" "Tar?" asked the Home Depot man. "What're you using tar for?" "I'm building an ark," said Schwartzman. If there was anything that two years of completing God's preposterous homework assignments had taught Schwartzman it was that there was absolutely nothing you could tell Home Depot Man you were building that would surprise him, that would get any reaction from him at all, for that matter, aside from the usual skepticism about your choice of building materials.

Shalom Auslander recasts Jewish history in short story form. Start with the aforementioned "Prophet's Dilemma," and work your way backwards to "Plagued." [more inside]
posted on Jul 24, 2006 - View this thread

This is what happens when you put some of the best writers in UK comedy around a table to discuss videogames. Needless to say even the above average videogame writing gets a deserved hard time. Via the Spaced Out forums.
posted on Nov 16, 2005 - View this thread

Alexei Sayle's writing for the Independent in the Motoring section. Occasionally it's about motoring, too! Also found was his "Imitating Katherine Walker" [html/pdf] and an excerpt from his book of short stories 'Barcelona Plates'. more inside
posted on Jul 30, 2005 - View this thread

Grind. Endless drudgery. Too much in your in-tray, not enough in your out-tray. You put your headphones on, but it doesn't really help. You want a distraction - just for a moment or two. "A happy employee is a productive employee" you justify to yourself, although you're not convinced. Then it happens. A 24 carat nugget of plain text escapism lands in your in-box. You're an alt-tab, double-click away from sheer bliss. DNRC; A.Word.A.Day; FlipFlopFlyin Newsletter; The Plain Text Gazette; and the previously mentioned Snowmail and Newsnight Newsletters, which take a less formal but equally sharp look at the day's news, with anecdotes and observations thrown in. What other quality plain text mail lists are around?
posted on Sep 29, 2004 - View this thread

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 on Apr 14, 2003 - View this thread

Oxford's guide to collective terms for animals is a useful and fascinating although all-too-brief resource. Collective terms for birds are some of my favourites: an unkindness of ravens; a murmuration of starlings; a richness of martens. Bees and sheep seem to have a lot of collective terms. I can't imagine why. Altogether, though, I found one of the terms for for ferrets to be the pick of the bunch.
posted on Jan 13, 2003 - View this thread

Modern Humorist's "Rough Draft: Pop Culture the Way it Almost Was" is finally available. A few samples are here. And while I like the Modern Humorist and enjoyed their first book I'm partial to The Onion's "Our Dumb Century" as the funniest.book.ever. As I brace for the sarcastic responses, what do you think is the funniest book ever written?
posted on Oct 22, 2001 - View this thread

Forget the water on mars, the Israeli parliament and the nuclear disc drives... Here's the news we really wanted to know:
The corporate-pawn pseudo-weblogger Net Buzz seems to have a scoop on the winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Bad Writing Contest (the entries above are NOT on the official site). These may not be for real, (the contest has never listed them in a Top 10) but they're funny enough to see me through until the real thing comes along. (#2 and #1 are kinda predictable, but #6 should appeal to all us MeFi Narcisists)
posted on Jun 21, 2000 - View this thread