Death by Zamboni

Death by Zamboni by David David Katzman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Exhaustively - and often exhaustingly - funny, this novel uses every comico-literary trick in the book: mixed metaphors, wildly over-extended metaphors ("You can't see the metaphorest for the trees"), parody, surrealist riffs on just about anything that pops into the author's head: they're all there. (A technical note: I love the ongoing game with speech verbs and, at one point and to great comic effect, their absence.) Genre-hopping from hard-boiled-private-eye-meets-dark-lady to mad-scientist-saves-the-world-by-destroying-humanity, with the unexpected casting of a group of mimes as the baddies, the book is finally almost too overjoyed by its own weirdness to sustain itself as, well, a book. But if you like the idea of a post-modern Groucho Marx crossed with an off-the-wall pop Oulipiste (and, let's face it, who doesn't?), you'll love this. Looking forward to the next one, D2!

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Um diddle diddle (Shelly Goldstein)

Bible-based marriage

I posted this on Facebook a few days ago, but I don't want anyone to miss it, so I decided to put it here too. 

The world

I got this from Joe.My.God, who got it from See My Briefs, who got it from their friend Kevin. Thank you, Kevin. 

(You need to click on it to see the whole thing. Dont ask me why, ask Blogger. I just do what I'm told.)

Imagine

Feeling thorny?

Digital cameras and cheap air travel have so much to answer for. If you find this photograph amusing you're probably reading the wrong blog or having an off day. If you don't find it amusing but would still like to see lots more photographs of people transforming fragments of the world about them into substantially larger penises than the ones they already possess, along with many other wonders, take a look at this site, entitled Photo Clichés. After which you can come back and explain to me why belonging to the second group is somehow wittier and more noble than belonging to the first.

I apologise for the title to this post. Not because it isn't funny (because, in a way that's congruous to the general mood of the post, it is), but because I sort of stole it from Photo Clichés. This is what happens when you try to be- or pass for being - original, but don't quite make it.

All sorts of fun activities

This is from Liveleak, and was first spotted by Matthew Gallaway's cousin. My thanks to them both.

Hey Sarah Palin

Via Jesus' General

God help us

“Say it ain’t so, Joe! There you go pointing backwards again ... Now, doggone it, let’s look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education, and I’m glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and God bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right?”

Sarah Palin debates.

Lethal

OK, if you visit Joe.My.God, you'll know I found this there. And even if you don't, you know it now. How self-defeating can language be? Don't worry. Enjoy. It was made by Kirby Ferguson.

Jippy x 2

I was reminded of Victoria Wood and Julie Walters by Whitless (see post below), who was actually talking about French and Saunders. They're good too, or can be, but these two videos from the Victoria Wood show are simply marvellous.

Genes

Ever wondered what the baby would look like if you had one with your partner? Your gay partner? Or, indeed, any one else's partner? Well, apparently there's a machine that can tell you. It's called The Gene Machine and it lives in Manhattan. You can find out more by clicking here. And when you've finished I recommend you click on "Return to Whitless" at the bottom of the page for more of this very funny site.

REM Shock Announcement

I just saw this on Joe My God. Nice one, Michael.

Gay Bulgaria

David Giltinan, on Goodreads, has reviewed a book called Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities. It sounds fabulous. Here are some of the titles, with excerpts and/or comments, that David particularly enjoyed:

How to Draw a Straight Line, by Sir Alfred Bray Kempe
'The Unexplored Fields are still vast.'

The Art of Faking Exhibition Poultry (1934), by George Ryley Scott.
The author treads an indistinct line between condemning this widespread and despicable practice, and telling the reader exactly how to do it.

Correctly English in Hundred Days (Shanghai Correctly English Society, 1934)
This book is prepared for the Chinese young man who wishes to served for the foreign firms. It divided nealy hundred and ninety pages. It contains full of ordinary speak and write language.....

Drummer Dick's Discharge, by Beatrix M. DeBurgh (1902)

Penetrating Wagner's Ring, by John DiGaetani (1978)

Handbook for the Limbless

Gay Bulgaria ('once noted in a survey as the least borrowed book in British libraries')

Was Oderic of Pordenone Ever in Tibet?

The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum, by Wallace Irwin (1901)
'Am I a turnip? On the strict Q.T.,
When do my Trilbys get so ossified?
Why am I minus when it's up to me
To brace my Paris pansy for a glide?'

Truncheons: Their Romance and Reality, by Erland Fenn Clark (1935)
with over 100 plates illustrating more than 500 truncheons.

Riparliamone

For Italian speakers, here's the wonderful Paola Cortellesi casting a wry glance (as they used to say) at the Italian situation, character, political opportunism, and so on. She's interrupted by the appalling Serena Dandini, but I can't do anything about this other than express my irritation here.


Thank you, Francesco, for directing me to this.

One for Salman

I was directed to this by its maker, who comments on Guardian blogs as IMHOTEP. Apparently, it was criticised by Campaign magazine, which isn't surprising, and by The Observer, which, frankly, is.