Richard Lederer

The insults to your intelligence begin right in the introduction, where you'll find a stupidly self-aggrandizing, obviously fictional anecdote about a policeman rewarding him for criticizing the officer's grammar during a traffic stop ("Are you the guy who writes those books about language?").

Then there's the pitifully shallow chapter on biased language, that can't decide how seriously to treat its subject;

Then there's the chapter on redundancy, where the author hilariously twists himself show more into linguistic pretzels to avoid overusing the word "redundancy";

Then there's the WTF chapter where he rhapsodizes on how unique and inimitable Emily Dickinson is, then prints some poems by his middle school English pupils, claiming that they've captured her spirit exactly. (!!)

He seems to be trying to Frankenstein together the remaining miscellany of his notebooks into an abomination that's part trivia and part lazy analysis; yet he also wants to be admired as a scholar and an authority. Predictably, he fails at everything, and cheapens every subject he touches.

This book will punish you, not reward you, for reading it. show less

First published in 1987, Lederer chronicles the many and various ways in which the English language has been abused, misused and generally massacred. I first read it years ago but in the rereading now, I would say it holds up pretty well. There are parts that are truly laugh-out-loud hilarious. Some are familiar because they are famous (think Yogi Berra-isms); others are just plain priceless.

Want some examples?

From student bloopers in essays:
- (reversing a g and a q): "When a boy and a girl show more are deeply I love, there is no quilt felt between them."
- "In 1957, Eugene O'Neill won a Pullet Surprise"
- "Necessity is the mother of convention."
- "Writing at the same time as Shakespeare was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained."

From Modern Day Malapropisms:
- "He is a wealthy typhoon."
- "They call it PMS - Pre-Minstrel Syndrome."
- "I wish someone would make a decision around here. I am tired of just hanging around in libido."

From Mixed-up Metaphors:

- "I'm not going to be side-tracked into a tangent."
- "Let's hope that Steve Carlton gets his curve ball straightened out."
- "It's time to grab the bull by the tail and look it in the eye."

From Lost in Translation:

- "Our nylons cost more than common, but you'll find they are best in the long run"
- (sign in Majorcan shop entrance): "English well talking" and "Here Speeching American."

From Laffing at Misspellings:

- "Many people believe he was a Satin worshipper."
- "Today's special: barely soup"
- "Drop your ballet in the ballet box."

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I love stuff like this. I will admit to owning several other books by Lederer, who is nothing if not prolific, though goodness knows, there seems to be a never-ending supply of examples to draw from! show less

A nice change after Crystal, Partridge, Truss - Lederer is a scholar, but this is a more playful book. He makes us learn, and think, but mostly he encourages us to love to communicate and to play with words and to explore grammar etc. What made this even more palatable is that it's a mixed set of short essays. They fit together nicely, but if one is too abstruse or annoying (I don't like puns) it's ok to scan it and go to the next. And they're all a little different, some poignant, some show more purely silly, some a bit analytical. I was surprised just how much I enjoyed almost all of the book.

One of the things I learned is how prevalent the claims of 'spook etymologists' can become. Read for yourself how wrong is the common claim for the origin of 'posh' and know that the French say 'no score' in tennis and so 'love' is not from 'l'ouef.' I also appreciate that he advises pedants to choose their battles carefully - but I disagree with him that the abuse of 'unique' is one to let by. And I like his lists - especially that of gratuitously syllabified (not syllabificated) words. show less

I've been a huge fan of Lederer's humorous compilations for some 15 years now. His books like Anguished English and Bride of Anguished English are keepers for my shelf. He's most famous for his collected World According to Student Bloopers, which is probably one of the most mass-emailed pieces of humor to grace the internet.

This book does include a slightly updated version of "World," but I found the cover blurb to be somewhat misleading. Humor isn't the focus of this book. Instead, the show more majority of the essays are on language and word play. There is some funny stuff intermixed, and some of the essays were downright fascinating ("How I Write" and "Literature Lives!"). Others dragged on for me. I enjoy a good pun or word play, but page after page? It gets tedious.

While this book wasn't quite what I was expecting--a sort of "Best Of" of his humor--it was an okay read, and one that language-lovers, writers, and English teachers will likely enjoy. show less