I was a bit concerned about reading Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs as I sometimes get annoying songs stuck in my head and I in no way wanted to encourage that! However, these were just poorly written songs, (or so the people that responded to the survey thought) and not so much ones that would stick with me. A rather interesting read ... my favorite being the Carpenter's song Close to You .... ("why do birds suddenly appear ...") .... the question here was "Does no one remember a particular Hitchcock movie?" ! :-) Good for a chuckle or two.

Here's a word book with a nice twist: The African Svelte: Ingenious Misspellings That Make Surprising Sense, by Daniel Menaker (drawings by Roz Chast). Yes, the words are spelled incorrectly or are incorrect, and yet, it works! Is a "last stitch" effort any less descriptive than "last ditch" effort?

Are you someone who thinks of the perfect thing to say ... after the fact? (I am). There's an expression for that! L' esprit de l'escalier ("the wit of the staircase"). There's one in German, too: Treppenwitz (it also means staircase wit). Alas, there is nothing in English. Fortunately there have been many who did come up with something clever to say and these are gathered together in viva la repartee: clever comebacks and witty retorts from history's great wits & wordsmiths, by Dr. Mardy Grothe. Thoroughly enjoyable (I even enjoyed the sports retorts). :-)

Reading Hermit With Dog