Download or read book Quitting the Nairobi Trio written by Jim Knipfel and published by Tarcher. This book was released on 2000 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author describes his six-month residence in a locked-door psych ward, where he was committed after another suicide attempt.
Download or read book Will Cuppy American Satirist written by Wes D. Gehring and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-10-11 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Back in the golden age of humor books (late 1920s-early 1950s), when wits of the pantheon like Robert Benchley, James Thurber, and S.J. Perelman were producing their signature works, there was another singular satirist who more than held his own with such fast company: Will Cuppy (1884-1949). This factual funnyman's metier is dark comedy that flirts with nihilism. His agenda is baldly stated in such classic Cuppy book titles as How to Be a Hermit (1929), How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes (1931), and The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950). This biography doubles as a critical study of a satirist whose shish-kebabing of humanity was often done through the veiled anthropomorphic use of animals. For a biographer, Will Cuppy represents a treasure trove of possibilities. He was a great humorist, and most of his best work is still in print, but until now he has never been the subject of a book-length study. His mesmerizingly complex and eccentric private life almost trumps the comic accomplishments of his public persona.
Download or read book Forties Film Funnymen written by Wes D. Gehring and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twelve classic comedy films examined within these pages are distinguished by an equal number of defining comic performances. Ranging from The Great Dictator (1940) to A Southern Yankee (1948), each film focuses on the most central theme of "clown comedy": Resilience, the encouragement or hope that one can survive the most daunting of life's dilemmas--even during the war-torn 1940s. And each film can be regarded as a microcosm of the antiheroic world of its central clown (or clowns). Among the performers represented are Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Eddie Bracken, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, the Marx Brothers, Harold Lloyd and Red Skelton. This lavishly illustrated work includes an introduction by noted film critic and historian Anthony Slide.
Download or read book Unplugging Philco written by Jim Knipfel and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-04-14 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wally Philco is a gentle, midlevel insurance industry operative living with his wife, Margie, in Brooklyn. In the years since those terrible events took place in Tupelo, Mississippi, though, the world -- and Brooklyn, too -- has become a very different place. Nobody's sure exactly what happened on the day now known as Horribleness Day, but it became pretty clear afterward that the Australians were involved somehow. Long after all the initial craziness has petered out, the Horribleness is still being used as an excuse for everything, from insomnia and lower back pain to joblessness, bank robbery, higher taxes, drunk driving, and murder. Likewise, everything from icy sidewalks to earthquakes to casino bus accidents is being cited as the work of terrorists. Now it's every Mutual Citizen's job to keep an eye on his neighbor and to report anything amiss. Wally's neighbor, Whit Chambers, has been busy practically setting a world record for turning in suspicious characters and Unmutuals to the local authorities and, in fact, Whit's had his eye and his telescope trained on Wally for some time now. When Wally finally snaps, he finds refuge with the Unpluggers, an underground movement fighting for just a few minutes of peace and quiet. With a cast of Dickensian characters, from stroller-wielding Brooklyn mothers to former Kennedy spooks and Norwegian cowboys, Jim Knipfel's Unplugging Philco is a wildly funny look at our life and times, filled with sharp cultural references and vivid, witty prose that testifies to a dangerously perceptive mind behind the madness.
Download or read book Why People Die by Suicide written by Thomas Joiner and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of a suicide, the most troubling questions are invariably the most difficult to answer: How could we have known? What could we have done? And always, unremittingly: Why? Written by a clinical psychologist whose own life has been touched by suicide, this book offers the clearest account ever given of why some people choose to die. Drawing on extensive clinical and epidemiological evidence, as well as personal experience, Thomas Joiner brings a comprehensive understanding to seemingly incomprehensible behavior. Among the many people who have considered, attempted, or died by suicide, he finds three factors that mark those most at risk of death: the feeling of being a burden on loved ones; the sense of isolation; and, chillingly, the learned ability to hurt oneself. Joiner tests his theory against diverse facts taken from clinical anecdotes, history, literature, popular culture, anthropology, epidemiology, genetics, and neurobiology--facts about suicide rates among men and women; white and African-American men; anorexics, athletes, prostitutes, and physicians; members of cults, sports fans, and citizens of nations in crisis. The result is the most coherent and persuasive explanation ever given of why and how people overcome life's strongest instinct, self-preservation. Joiner's is a work that makes sense of the bewildering array of statistics and stories surrounding suicidal behavior; at the same time, it offers insight, guidance, and essential information to clinicians, scientists, and health practitioners, and to anyone whose life has been affected by suicide.
Download or read book From Madness to Mental Health written by Greg Eghigian and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2009-12-10 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Madness to Mental Health neither glorifies nor denigrates the contributions of psychiatry, clinical psychology, and psychotherapy, but rather considers how mental disorders have historically challenged the ways in which human beings have understood and valued their bodies, minds, and souls. Greg Eghigian has compiled a unique anthology of readings, from ancient times to the present, that includes Hippocrates; Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love, penned in the 1390s; Dorothea Dix; Aaron T. Beck; Carl Rogers; and others, culled from religious texts, clinical case studies, memoirs, academic lectures, hospital and government records, legal and medical treatises, and art collections. Incorporating historical experiences of medical practitioners and those deemed mentally ill, From Madness to Mental Health also includes an updated bibliography of first-person narratives on mental illness compiled by Gail A. Hornstein.
Download or read book Kinds of American Film Comedy written by Wes D. Gehring and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2024-01-30 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking film study begins with a survey of American print humorists from eras leading up to and overlapping the advent of film--including some who worked both on the page and on the screen, like Robert Benchley, Will Rogers, Groucho Marx and W. C. Fields. Six comic film genres are identified as outgrowths of a national tradition of Cracker Barrel philosophers, personality comedy, parody, screwball comedy, romantic comedy and dark comedy. Whether it is Mark Twain or a parody film involving Steve Martin, comedy is most often about blowing "raspberries" at the world, and a reminder you are not alone.
Download or read book Going Places written by Robert Burgin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 837 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Successfully navigate the rich world of travel narratives and identify fiction and nonfiction read-alikes with this detailed and expertly constructed guide. Just as savvy travelers make use of guidebooks to help navigate the hundreds of countries around the globe, smart librarians need a guidebook that makes sense of the world of travel narratives. Going Places: A Reader's Guide to Travel Narratives meets that demand, helping librarians assist patrons in finding the nonfiction books that most interest them. It will also serve to help users better understand the genre and their own reading interests. The book examines the subgenres of the travel narrative genre in its seven chapters, categorizing and describing approximately 600 titles according to genres and broad reading interests, and identifying hundreds of other fiction and nonfiction titles as read-alikes and related reads by shared key topics. The author has also identified award-winning titles and spotlighted further resources on travel lit, making this work an ideal guide for readers' advisors as well a book general readers will enjoy browsing.
Download or read book The Blow off written by Jim Knipfel and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-07-12 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monster Stalks NYC When a local drunk is mugged near the toxic Gowanus Canal by “a hulking, hairy beast who smells really bad,” Hank Kalabander thinks nothing of blaming the assault on the legendary Bigfoot. His sardonic crime blotter for The Hornet, a local Brooklyn rag, often gleefully recounts the tragedies that befall the borough’s dimmer residents. But when an upstart reporter from The Eagle, a tabloid paper, lifts his piece and implicates Bigfoot in two more attacks, the crimes become local news fodder and the hunt for the “Gowanus Beast” takes off. Pretty soon the G.B. is to blame for everything from murder and robberies to playground scuffles and a pie’s disappearance—and neighborhood watch patrols have taken to the streets. Alarmed by the populace’s response, Hank decides it’s his responsibility to disprove the existence of this menacing beast and, with the help of an old carny colleague, put an end to the growing hysteria. In The Blow-off, acclaimed writer Jim Knipfel has crafted an astoundingly funny send-up of our current times—an intoxicating blend of sharp cultural references, wildly comical scenes, discerning commentary, and unforgettable characters.
Download or read book Residue written by Jim Knipfel and published by Red Hen Press. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A longtime Wisconsin sheriff faces his first-ever homicide: “[Fuses] murder and mortuary science in a novel of the humorously macabre” (Derek Davis, author of Gifts of a Dead Man). In the nearly twenty years that Leonard Koznowski has been sheriff of Beaver Rapids, Wisconsin, he’s never encountered a homicide. When the local mortician and his assistant are brutally gunned down, Leonard is thrust into a tumultuous investigation linking religion, high school athletics, the black market of body parts, unwholesome sexual proclivities, and a sinister secret society. And with deer season fast approaching, the timing could’ve been a hell of a lot better. Inspired by actual events, Jim Knipfel gives a hilariously dark, satirical twist to the American pastoral. “In Sheriff Koznowski, Knipfel creates a straightforward man of the law with more smarts than he can admit to, while surrounded by deputies incapable of the simplest of procedures―like thinking. You’ll find yourself saying ‘yah’ and ‘okeydokey’ for at least a week after you’ve finished tearing through this delightful, engaging paean to the rural absurd.” ―Derek Davis, author of Gifts of a Dead Man “A gifted stylist.” —The New York Times Book Review
Download or read book Child and Adolescent Suicidal Behavior written by David N. Miller and published by Guilford Publications. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive resource--now revised and expanded--provides school practitioners with an evidence-based framework for preventing and effectively responding to youth suicidal behavior. David N. Miller guides readers to understand, screen, and assess for suicide risk in students in grades K–12. He presents collaborative strategies for intervening appropriately within a multi-tiered system of support. The book also shows how to develop a coordinated plan for postvention in the aftermath of a suicide, offering specific dos and don'ts for supporting students, parents, and school personnel. User-friendly tools include reproducible handouts; the book's large-size format facilitates photocopying. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials. New to This Edition *Chapter on the roles and responsibilities of the school-based suicide prevention team. *Significantly revised coverage of screening and suicide risk assessment. *Situates prevention and intervention within a schoolwide multi-tiered system of support. *Updated throughout with current data, practical recommendations, and resources.
Download or read book The Story of my Life 100th Anniversary Edition written by Helen Keller and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2002-02-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Helen Keller's triumph over her blindness and deafness has become one of the most inspiring stories of our time. Here, in a book first published when she was young woman, is Helen Keller's own story—complex, poignant, and filled with love. With unforgettable immediacy, Helen’s own words reveal the heart of an exceptional woman, her struggles and joys, including that memorable moment when she finally understands that Anne’s finger-spelled letters w-a-t-e-r mean the fluid rushing over her hand. Helen Keller was always a compassionate and witty advocate for the handicapped, and her sincere and eloquent memoir is deeply moving for the sighted and the blind, the deaf and the hearing. “Her spirit will endure,” said Senator Lister Hill at her funeral, “as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith.” Through movies and plays, most notably The Miracle Worker, which portrayed her relationship with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Keller’s life has become an emblem of hope for people everywhere. With an Introduction by Jim Knipfel and an Afterword by Marlee Matlin This Signet Classic edition includes a facsimile of the Braille alphabet, a sign-language alphabet, and a full selection of Helen Keller’s letters.
Download or read book Film Clowns of the Depression written by Wes D. Gehring and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-11-21 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1930s are routinely considered sound film's greatest comedy era. Though this golden age encompassed various genres of laughter, clown comedy is the most basic type. This work examines the Depression decade's most popular type of comedy--the clown, or personality comedian. Focusing upon the Depression era, the study filters its analysis through twelve memorable pictures. Each merits an individual chapter, in which it is critiqued. The films are deemed microcosmic representatives of the comic world and discussed in this context. While some of the comedians in this text have generated a great deal of previous analysis, funnymen like Joe E. Brown and Eddie Cantor are all but forgotten. Nevertheless, they were comedy legends in their time, and their legacy, as showcased in these movies, merits rediscovery by today's connoisseur of comedy. Even this book's more familiar figures, such as Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers, are often simply relegated to being recognizable pop culture icons whose work has been neglected in recent years. This book attempts to address these oversights and to re-expose the brilliance and ingenuity with which the screen clowns contributed a comic resiliency that was desperately needed during the Depression and can still be greatly appreciated today. The films discussed are City Lights (1931, Chaplin), The Kid From Spain (1932, Cantor), She Done Him Wrong (1933, Mae West), Duck Soup (1933, Marx Brothers), Sons of the Desert (1933, Laurel and Hardy), Judge Priest (1934, Will Rogers), It's a Gift (1934, W.C. Fields), Alibi Ike (1935, Brown), A Night at the Opera (1935, Marx Brothers), Modern Times (1936, Chaplin), Way Out West (1937, Laurel and Hardy), and The Cat and the Canary (1939, Bob Hope).
Download or read book First Person Accounts of Mental Illness and Recovery written by Craig W. LeCroy and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In First Person Accounts of Mental Illness, case studies of individuals experiencing schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, substance use disorders, and other mental ailments will be provided for students studying the classification and treatment of psychopathology. All of the cases are written from the perspective of the mentally ill individual, providing readers with a unique perspective of the experience of living with a mental disorder. "In their book First Person Accounts of Mental Illness and Recovery, LeCroy and Holschuh offer the student, researcher, or layperson the intimate voice of mental illness from the inside. First Person Accounts of Mental Illness and Recovery is a wonderful book, and it is an ideal, even indispensable, companion to traditional mental health texts. I am grateful that they have given the majority of this book to the voices that are too often unheard." —John S. Brekke, PhD, Frances G. Larson Professor of Social Work Research, School of Social Work, University of Southern California; Fellow, American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare "This is absolutely a must-read for anyone who has been touched by someone with a mental illness, whether it be personal or professional. It is imperative that this book be required reading in any course dealing with psychopathology and the DSM, whether it be in psychology, psychiatry, social work, nursing, or counseling." —Phyllis Solomon, PhD, Professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice and Professor of Social Work in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania A unique volume of first person narratives written from the perspective of individuals with a mental illness Drawing from a broad range of sources, including narratives written expressly for this book, self-published accounts, and excerpts from previously published memoirs, this distinctive set of personal stories covers and illustrates a wide spectrum of mental disorder categories, including: Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders Mood disorders Anxiety disorders Personality disorders Substance-related disorders Eating disorders Impulse control disorders Cognitive disorders Somatoform disorders Dissociative disorders Gender identity disorders Sleep disorders Disorders usually first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, or adolescence Reflecting a recovery orientation and strengths-based approach, the authentic and relevant stories in First Person Accounts of Mental Illness and Recovery promote a greater appreciation for the individual's role in treatment and an expansion of hope and recovery.
Download or read book The Buzzing written by Jim Knipfel and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet Roscoe Baragon–crack reporter at a major (well, maybe not that major) metropolitan newspaper. Baragon covers what is affectionately called the Kook Beat–where the loonies call and tell him in meticulously deranged detail what it’s like to live in their bizarre and lonely world. Lately Baragon’s been writing stories about voodoo curses and alien abductions; about fungus-riddled satellites falling to earth and thefts of plumbing fixtures from SRO hotels by strange aquatic-looking creatures. Not exactly New York Times material. Maybe it’s the radioactive corpse that puts him over the edge. Or maybe it’s the guy who claims to have been kidnapped by the state of Alaska! But Baragon is now convinced that a vast conspiracy is under way that could take the whole city down–something so deeply strange that it could be straight out of one of the old Japanese monster movies that he watches every night before he goes to sleep. But stuff like this only happens in the movies. Right? The Buzzing marks the fictional debut of the acclaimed author of Slackjaw. It is a novel of deep paranoia and startling originality. And it could certainly never happen. Right? Right?
Download or read book Red Skelton written by Wes Gehring and published by Indiana Historical Society. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than twenty years, Hoosier comic Red Skelton entertained millions of viewers who gathered around their television sets to delight in the antics of such notable characters as Freddie the Freeloader, Clem Kaddiddlehopper, Cauliflower McPugg, and Sheriff Deadeye. Noted film historian Wes D. Gehring examines the man behind the characters—someone who never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Gehring delves into Skelton's hardscrabble life with a shockingly dysfunctional family in the southern Indiana community of Vincennes, his days on the road on the vaudeville circuit, the comedian's early success on radio, his up-and-down movie career with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and his sometimes tragic personal life.
Download or read book Humanizing Mental Illness written by Abigail Gosselin and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2021-08-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mental illness stigma is rooted in a perceived lack of agency, but stigma itself undermines agency. While most philosophical accounts of the matter are concerned with the question of how much agency a person with mental illness has, this book asks how we can enhance the agency of people with mental illness. Humanizing Mental Illness explains and explores these connections, arguing that all of us can and should adjust our social practices to enhance the agency of people with mental illness. This agency is complicated and nuanced, as it is often directly constrained due to a person's symptoms and indirectly constrained due to stigma. Abigail Gosselin, both a scholar in the field of social philosophy and a person with a psychiatric disability, illustrates the importance of social interaction for developing and exercising agency. By overcoming mental illness stigma and by adopting certain epistemic and moral virtues, we can interact with people who have mental illness in ways that help enhance their agency and enable them to flourish. Humanizing Mental Illness demonstrates that we need to challenge our explicit and implicit biases and learn to interact with mental illness in more intentional, supportive, and inclusive ways.
