Download or read book Buttering Parsnips Twocking Chavs written by Martin H. Manser and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2008-09-18 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A more-ishly browsable collection of words and phrases, linguistic quirks, lexical oddities and syntactic surprises. Our langauge is one of delight and curiosity. BUTTERING PARSNIPS, TWOCKING CHAVS is a guided tour of English, exploring the origins of words, their changing meaning, lexical peculiarities, word games and lost words, presented in lists, small passages of narrative text, amusing quotations and nuggets of amazing facts. This must-have compendium shows that words have a matchless power to entertain. Here you will find enough new words and phrases to last a lifetime. Idioms frolic beside cliches, catchphrases, proverbs, eponyms, acronyms, spoonerisms and split infinitives. Text messages cavort alongside business jargon and rap slang to produce a language that is both witty and bizarre, and sometimes frankly outstanding. So whether you're a yuppie or a woopie, a sinbad or dinky, a spod or even a wazzock, these pages will provide endless hours of delight and fascination.

Download or read book NB by J C A Walk through the Times Literary Supplement written by James Campbell and published by Paul Dry Books. This book was released on 2023-05-02 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NB by J. C., a collection of James Campbell’s best columns from the TLS, is a guide to the literary pleasures and absurdities of the past two decades. For over twenty years, James Campbell wrote the popular NB column on the back page of The Times Literary Supplement, signing it “J. C.” The initials were not intended as a disguise, but to provide freedom to the persona. “J. C.” was irreverent, whimsical, occasionally severe. The column had a low tolerance for the literary sins of pomposity, hypocrisy, and cant. It took aim at contemporary absurdities resulting from identity politics or from academic jargon. Readers of NB by J. C. will find not only an off-beat guide to our cultural times, but entries from The TLS Reviewer’s Handbook, which offered regular advice on the cultivation of a good writing style. “Above all, aspire to the Three E’s: elegance, eloquence, and entertainment.” The Introduction offers a history of the TLS from its beginnings through its precarious stages of adaptation and survival. “The secret of J. C.’s weekly column is its unique mix of anonymity with intimacy: this ‘stranger’, whom we meet over our morning coffee, is the most discreet and delightful of guides to what’s happening―good or mostly bad―in the literary world, with all its pretensions, follies, and occasional triumphs. I especially relished J. C.’s prizes―for the worst prose or the silliest blurb. Then again, leave it to J. C. to find the rare edition, the forgotten book of poems that deserves another look. True wit, coupled with wisdom: it’s the rarest of writerly feats.”―Marjorie Perloff, author of The Vienna Paradox: A Memoir “I receive immense pleasure from J. C.’s columns. Something more than pleasure: warmth, laughter, gratitude (especially when he is nailing academic unreadability).”—Vivian Gornick, author of Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader "For many years, Campbell appeared each week in the Times Literary Supplement, where his back-page essay—ironic, bookish and irresistibly entertaining—was every subscriber’s favorite feature."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post, on James Campbell's NB column

Download or read book The Penguin Book of Baby Names written by David Pickering and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-07-30 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the decisions a new parent makes, choosing that special name is the most significant and the most rewarding. A new reference book for prospective parents, this clear, helpful and easy-to-use A-Z guide gives you thousands of brilliant suggestions for picking the perfect name for your new arrival. It also includes appendices of the top ten names through the centuries and the most popular celebrity names.

Download or read book Barmy Britain Bizarre and True Stories From Across the Nation written by Jack Crossley and published by Kings Road Publishing. This book was released on 2008-11-03 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hilarious compendium of all that's weird and wonderful about life in the British Isles - the eccentric, bizarre bureaucracy and outright oddity reported over the last year by the nation's newspapers, including: Guardian headline, 'Man with false leg hit with toilet lid.'; The Astrological Magazine, 'announces that it is to cease due to unforeseen circumstances.' Jack Crossley spent some 40 years in Fleet Street and has compiled this laugh-out-loud collection of anecdotes and strange goings-on which sound so outlandish you certainly couldn't make them up.

Download or read book The Writers Directory written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Penguin Pocket Jokes written by David Pickering and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2006-08-03 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you heard the one about the man who walked into a bar? (Ouch!)... Penguin Pocket Jokes is essential (and hilarious) reading for anyone searching for the perfect joke. Whether you want a snappy wisecrack or a longer rib-tickler when making a speech, this easy-to-use guide will provide the perfect witticism.

Download or read book The Times Index written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 1692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Indexes the Times and its supplements.

Download or read book The Penguin Dictionary of First Names written by David Pickering and published by Penguin Books, Limited (UK). This book was released on 2004 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Names have much to tell us about our past, our beliefs - even our personality traits. With 150 plus entries, this book takes a look at over 5,000 examples, ranging from the familiar to the comparatively obscure, drawn from different parts of the English-speaking world.

Download or read book The Tale of the Blue eyed Cat written by Enid Blyton and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Story of how a king and a pedlar switch places with each other for a day.

Download or read book The New Penguin Thesaurus written by Rosalind Fergusson and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 2000 with total page 684 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive and easy-to-use thesaurus, containing over 300,000 synonyms and antonyons, and covering standard and colloqusal english and slang.

Download or read book The Beautiful Pattern written by Enid Blyton and published by . This book was released on 2002-01 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Blue Eyed Cat written by Enid Blyton and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join the Blue Eyed Cat and her other toy friends in this tale about how she got new eyes. Beautifully written and illustrated, this Enid Blyton storybook is a must for every boy and girl.

Download or read book Dictionary of Witchcraft written by David Pickering and published by David Pickering. This book was released on 2014-01-19 with total page 730 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This acclaimed 180,000-word A-Z dictionary is a comprehensive and highly readable guide to witchcraft, revealing the historical reality beneath the popular stereotypes of old hags, broomsticks, and black cats. Complete with biographies of notorious witches and descriptions of their covens, familiars, spells and practices, it also contains colourful accounts of infamous trials and all the associated paraphernalia of witch-hunting, torture and persecution across Europe and colonial America. A first-class source book for the historian, folklorist and casual reader alike, it shows in vivid and bloody detail how witchcraft hysteria swept the western world in the post-medieval period and has continued to resurface into modern times.

Download or read book The Penguin Book of Hindu Names for Girls written by Maneka Gandhi and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2004 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Choosing A Name For Your Child Has Never Been Easier The Penguin Book Of Hindu Names Has Sold Over 50,000 Copies Since It Was Published Almost A Decade Ago. The Product Of Several Years Of Research, It Is An Exhaustive And User-Friendly Compilation, With Information On Sources And Usage. For The First Time, This Classic Work Is Available In A Two-Volume Set, Divided Into Names For Boys And Those For Girls, Making It More Accessible. Including Modern Names And Those Which Are Popular, The Penguin Book Of Hindu Names For Girls Serves As A Practical Guide For Choosing The Perfect Name For Your Daughter. It Is Also A Precise And Invaluable Sourcebook For Scholars And Lay Readers Alike Who Would Like To Know What Familiar (And Not So Familiar) Hindu Names Actually Mean.

Download or read book Perfect Pub Quiz written by David Pickering and published by Random House. This book was released on 2009-05-27 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perfect Pub Quiz is the ideal companion for all general knowledge nuts. Whether you're organising a quiz night in your local or you simply want to get in a bit of practice on tricky subjects, Perfect Pub Quiz has all the questions and answers. With topics ranging from the Roman Empire to Little Britain and from the Ryder Cup to Alex Rider, this easy-to-use quiz book will tax your brain and provide hours of fun. The Perfect series is a range of practical guides that give clear and straightforward advice on everything from getting your first job to choosing your baby's name.Written by experienced authors offering tried-and-tested tips, each book contains all you need to get it right first time.

Download or read book Complete Book of Baby Names written by Lesley Bolton and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-06 with total page 1139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Complete Book of Baby Names: The Most Names (100,001+), Most Unique Names, Most Idea-Generating Lists (600+) and the Most Help to Find the Perfect Name "If you've got an occasion to bestow a name, and you're looking for the widest possible range of choices, you can't go wrong by bringing home a copy of The Complete Book of Baby Names." phantomscribbler.blogspot.com Every year, hundreds of thousands of expectant parents turn to The Complete Book of Baby Namesas their essential, indispensable guide to choosing the best name for their child. Helpful and full of creative inspiration, this #1 bestseller gives you all the best ways to find your favorites and decide on the perfect fit. The Most Names, Most Lists, Most Help to Find the Best Name: More Names AND Richer Definitions The Most (600+) Creative Lists to Inspire You The Most Idea-Sparking Celebrity Baby Names The Most Popular-and Unique-Names The Newest Trends, Including What Makes the Perfect Name! More than 600 Fun Lists to Help You Choose, Including: Intellectual, creative names from literature and the arts Strong, respected names from sports and politics Unique, under-the-radar names that hit the right notes Packed full of more than 100,001 baby names with origins, variations, and richer definitions, The Complete Book of Baby Names makes choosing your baby's name a joyful act of love. Everything You Need ... The most up-to-date list of popular names - plus top twin names Selecting sibling names that make sense for your family Great gender-neutral names - plus the top 61 names Adding a middle name - or two! 18 essentials in choosing the perfect name... And what not to name your baby All the top baby boy and baby girl names! Plus all the best variations and nicknames All You Need in One Complete Book! MORE PRAISE FOR THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BABY NAMES: "The Complete Book of Baby Names is a great resource if you are naming a baby, and, it's also an interesting read. Busy Girl has been using it to inform all her friends what their names mean.Most importantly, though, it covers what NOT to name your baby. I'll let you check that one out yourself." BusyMom.net "Since this is my third child, I've been through my share of baby name books, about 2 a pregnancy. This one I found as my favorite, not just the first few chapters but the list of names are wonderful and broken not just into boy and girl categories but lists of popular names by country, twin names and hordes of other lists. You'll be amazed, as I was." snowboundintheyukon.blogspot.com "If you're going to choose one baby name book and get the most bang for your buck, this is a good one to go with. It's more complete and helpful than any other single book I've seen out there and short of turning it into an OED-style multi-volume set, I'm not sure there's much more the author Lesley Bolton could pack in." daringyoungmom.com "The Complete Book of Baby Names is so fun too. It isn't just a list of names - it is like a course in baby-naming! With chapters on baby-naming history, naming trends, the attributes of a perfect name, middles names, etc. as well as 276 fun name lists like popular names in different countries, and bizarre lists such as the names of models, First Ladies, Reality TV Stars and more, this book could keep me going until I deliver!" 5minutesformom.com "We've seen a lot of baby name books in our time, some good, and some not so good. This one's a good one...It has the big list, so that you can look up the definitions of the names that you're considering. But, it also teaches you how to pick a really great name for your little bundle of joy... So, if you just want definitions, this book's got those. If you just don't know what name you want, or if you're scared of choosing the wrong name, this book can help." thefamilylog.com

Download or read book Hop on Pop written by Henry Jenkins III and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2003-01-23 with total page 776 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hop on Pop showcases the work of a new generation of scholars—from fields such as media studies, literature, cinema, and cultural studies—whose writing has been informed by their ongoing involvement with popular culture and who draw insight from their lived experiences as critics, fans, and consumers. Proceeding from their deep political commitment to a new kind of populist grassroots politics, these writers challenge old modes of studying the everyday. As they rework traditional scholarly language, they search for new ways to write about our complex and compelling engagements with the politics and pleasures of popular culture and sketch a new and lively vocabulary for the field of cultural studies. The essays cover a wide and colorful array of subjects including pro wrestling, the computer games Myst and Doom, soap operas, baseball card collecting, the Tour de France, karaoke, lesbian desire in the Wizard of Oz, Internet fandom for the series Babylon 5, and the stress-management industry. Broader themes examined include the origins of popular culture, the aesthetics and politics of performance, and the social and cultural processes by which objects and practices are deemed tasteful or tasteless. The commitment that binds the contributors is to an emergent perspective in cultural studies, one that engages with popular culture as the culture that "sticks to the skin," that becomes so much a part of us that it becomes increasingly difficult to examine it from a distance. By refusing to deny or rationalize their own often contradictory identifications with popular culture, the contributors ensure that the volume as a whole reflects the immediacy and vibrancy of its objects of study. Hop on Pop will appeal to those engaged in the study of popular culture, American studies, cultural studies, cinema and visual studies, as well as to the general educated reader. Contributors. John Bloom, Gerry Bloustein, Aniko Bodroghkozy, Diane Brooks, Peter Chvany, Elana Crane, Alexander Doty, Rob Drew, Stephen Duncombe, Nick Evans, Eric Freedman, Joy Fuqua, Tony Grajeda, Katherine Green, John Hartley, Heather Hendershot, Henry Jenkins, Eithne Johnson, Louis Kaplan, Maria Koundoura, Sharon Mazer, Anna McCarthy, Tara McPherson, Angela Ndalianis, Edward O’Neill, Catherine Palmer, Roberta Pearson, Elayne Rapping, Eric Schaefer, Jane Shattuc, Greg Smith, Ellen Strain, Matthew Tinkhom, William Uricchio, Amy Villarego, Robyn Warhol, Charles Weigl, Alan Wexelblat, Pamela Robertson Wojcik, Nabeel Zuberi