[Search for users]
[Overall Top Noters]
[List of all Conferences]
[Download this site]
| Title: | The Joy of Lex |
| Notice: | A Notes File even your grammar could love |
| Moderator: | THEBAY::SYSTEM |
|
| Created: | Fri Feb 28 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Mon Jun 02 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1192 |
| Total number of notes: | 42769 |
727.0. "Richard Lederer: "Anguished English"" by PHAROS::WILSON (Sex & Drugs & Hot Spring Rolls) Wed Oct 04 1989 18:25
I recommend to the readers of this conference the book _Anguished
English_, by Richard Lederer.
This is a very funny book! It is made up almost entirely of actual
bloopers culled from student papers, newspaper headlines, radio
broadcasts, court transcriptions, signs, and so on.
A sampling:
A sign outside a woman's clothing store: "Try Our Bikinis - They're
Simply the Tops!"
From a court transcription: "The pedestrian tried to cross the road,
but I got him anyway."
Newspaper headline:
IRAQI HEAD SEEKS ARMS
American mispronunciations, their definitions, and uses in sentences:
WHORE - a type of film that provokes feelings of fear - "I really like
to go see whore movies."
PARAMOUR - a kind of lawn trimming device - "Anyone seen my paramour?"
There is also a chapter on Samuel Goldwyn and Yogi Berra, two famous
Americans who created a number of puzzling sentences, such as:
"You can observe a lot sometimes just by watching." (Berra)
"The life of a bachelor is no life for a single man." (Goldwyn)
This is a fast-paced, fun book that the reader can easily browse
through for many hours.
I think Lederer has put together more than one book. Is anyone else
familiar with his work?
Wes