Cornelia Otis Skinner (1899–1979)

Another collection of essays by Cornelia Otis Skinner! The Ape in Me isn’t quite as outrageously funny as Nuts in May, but it is generally enjoyable and interesting. Highlights for me include the essays Have You Heard About My Vacation and My Quaking Hands.

Have You Heard About My Vacation involves the universal phenomenon of wanting desperately to tell others about your own vacation experience, but not wanting to hear a blessed thing about the vacation that they went on. It’s scathing show more and hilariously honest, and she captures the absurdity of being human so accurately. The following is one of my favorite quotes from this essay:

“The reaction of every listener who is accosted with one of these gratuitous travelogues is the same. To begin with, he doesn’t listen; then, as soon as it’s humanly possible, he changes the subject, and what he changes it to is a second gratuitous travelogue describing his own recent holiday. Only last week, a lady friend whom I ran across on the commuters’ train felt duty-bound to inquire politely, if somewhat halfheartedly, “How was Japan?” and as I drew a deep breath before starting to tell her, she started in telling me how Sweden was.”

My Quaking Hands is about the “shakes” that Skinner’s hands are apt to have, a condition that only worsens under stress or observation. Apparently she dealt with this condition her whole life, starting in childhood. It’s super relatable for anyone who has ever had something physical that they struggle with that other people notice and stare at on a daily basis. It’s also very funny, with Skinner at one point describing her hands as “fluttering like hysterical bats” while she tries to take out bobby pins, or attempting to thread the eye of a needle while sewing. show less

4.5 stars! Dithers and Jitters is a collection of humorous essays published in 1938. It starts off on a mildly funny note until around the half way point. Once I hit that point, the humor increased ten fold, and it was hit after hit! Some stand out essays for me were:

"Long After Audubon," an outrageous essay about bird identification that anyone who appreciates birds would be obsessed with.

"Platform Performance," in which Cornelia recounts the perils of watching someone speak while in full show more view of the audience on a stage platform behind them.

"The Skin Game" which was all about beauty culture, and was eerily similar to current anti-aging beauty trends.

"Allow Me, Madame," which is about the obnoxious tendency of men to intervene and do something for a woman that she is completely capable of doing herself. I was disappointed when she started off the essay by stating "I am no feminist..." I assumed that she was going to take things in an anti-feminist direction. But I was incorrect! The essay itself was totally a feminist essay, rightly pointing out where men get it wrong in some of their interactions with women, which was really cool to see. Also, incredibly funny! show less

4.5 stars! A hilarious collection of articles written by Cornelia Otis Skinner. Published in 1936, Excuse It, Please is a little more difficult to understand reference-wise than Skinner's Nuts in May, but still very funny and enjoyable to read! Some pieces stood out more than others. The first, about trying to place a call via a telephone operator, reminded me of how aggravating it is to deal with someone who seems determined not to assist you:

"Again and with waining hopes I dialed and the show more operator, figuring the joke had gone far enough, answered "Operator" in a voice of honey.
"I've been trying to get you," I snapped, "for exactly five minutes. You heard the signal - why didn't you answer?"
"In reply she merely cooed, "Excuse it, please!"
It, indeed! Why should she call herself It? Who did she think she was - Jean Harlow?"

Another highlight is Seeing Stars, which is about insufferable men pointing out constellations to women. It was one of the funniest, and most relatable, things I've ever read, because I've had men do that exact thing to me!

On Skating (going ice skating for the first time), On Riding (learning to ride a horse), and Ground-Minded (the terrors of airplane travel) are other stand outs. show less

A 4.5 star read! Nuts in May is a delightful collection of humorous essays, originally published in The New Yorker from 1942 to 1950. I came across it whilst perusing book blogger Stuck in a Book's "50 Books You Must Read But May Not Have Heard About." My library had but one faded, ancient copy of it, and I don't think anyone had checked it out for decades. Some of the essays are funnier than others, so it wasn't a full 5 star for me, but the essays that were funny were truly full of show more hilarity! Cornelia Otis Skinner's sense of humor reminded me quite a bit of Shirley Jackson's humor in her non-fiction books. Some stand out chapters for me were:

"Ordeal for Sons," in which Cornelia visits her son at boarding school; unfortunately for her, he is completely mortified by her presence.

"Family Blessing," in which Cornelia and her parents, none of them actually Catholic and entirely ill-equipped for the event at hand, end up meeting the pope.

"Bag of Bones," in which Cornelia and her son find what they presume to be dinosaur bones and laboriously lug them to a museum.

"Opening Night," in which everybody else is more stressed than Cornelia before her opening night performance. show less