Download or read book The Lexicon of Stupidity written by Ross Petras and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Look up Religion, and discover this from Paris Hilton: [The Kaballah] helps you confront your fears. Like, if a girl borrowed my clothes and never gave them back and I saw her wearing them months later, I would confront her. Or Anatomy, and find sportscaster Jerry Coleman: Winfield goes back to the wall. He hits his head on the wall and it rolls off! ItÕs rolling all the way back to second base! Or Truth in GovernmentÑhereÕs Senator Alan Simpson: There are a lot of things that we do that are irrelevant, but thatÕs what the Senate is for. Arranged alphabetically, from Accident, Traffic to Zoology, Game Show ContestantsÕ Knowledge of (and you wouldnÕt believe how distorted that knowledge sometimes is), The Lexicon of Stupidity is an overstuffed dictionary of quotes, banalities, actual book titles, holdup notes, menu items, TV listings, and more, each meeting one exacting criterion: theyÕre so jaw-droppingly dumb you canÕt help but laugh. ItÕs the wit of the witless. The comedy of the clueless. The giggly fun of celebrities, athletes, politicians, newscasters, and other pompous types planting a foot (or two) firmly in mouth. And no authors could be more qualified to pull it together than Ross and Kathryn Petras, whose calendar celebrating stupidityÑThe 365 Stupidest Things Ever SaidÑis a perennial knock-out, with millions of copies sold since its debut in 1995. It even includes real courtroom testimony: Q. Are you sexually active? A. No, I just lie there.
Download or read book Lexicon written by Max Barry and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell. Lexicon reads like Elmore Leonard high out of his mind on Snow Crash." —Lev Grossman, New York Times bestselling author of The Magicians and The Magician King “Best thing I've read in a long time . . . a masterpiece.” —Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of Wool Stick and stones break bones. Words kill. They recruited Emily Ruff from the streets. They said it was because she's good with words. They'll live to regret it. They said Wil Parke survived something he shouldn't have. But he doesn't remember. Now they're after him and he doesn't know why. There's a word, they say. A word that kills. And they want it back . . .
Download or read book Stupidity written by Avital Ronell and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Avital Ronell's work studies the fading empire of cognition, modulating stupidity into idiocy, puerility, and the figure of the ridiculous philosopher instituted by Kant. Investigating ignorance, dumbfoundedness, and the limits of reason, Stupidity probes the pervasive practice of theory-bashing and related forms of paranoid aggression. A section on prolonged and debilitating illness pushes the text to an edge of a corporeal hermeneutics, "at the limits of what the body knows and tells.""--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book The Official Dictionary of Idiocy written by James Napoli and published by Union Square + ORM. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get your snark on, with this hilarious compendium from the author of The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm. It’s the perfect book for today’s world. The battle for sanity and intelligence rages on! Read any news story today and it’s clear that idiots are everywhere. For that reason, James Napoli, the esteemed director of the National Sarcasm Society, has created a smart-aleck new dictionary that defines pop-culture touchstones and throws shade on the hopelessly foolish. With copiously illustrated and snarky entries on everything from “Alternative Facts” and “Congress” to “Cable News” and “Uber” (A convenient way to entrust your transportation to a potential serial killer . . .”), The Official Dictionary of Idiocy brings some much-needed laughter to these crazy days.
Download or read book The Demon s Lexicon written by Sarah Rees Brennan and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-06-02 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sixteen-year-old Nick and his brother, Alan, are always ready to run. Their father is dead, and their mother is crazy—she screams if Nick gets near her. She’s no help in protecting any of them from the deadly magicians who use demons to work their magic. The magicians want a charm that Nick’s mother stole—and they want it badly enough to kill. Alan is Nick’s partner in demon slaying and the only person he trusts in the world. So things get very scary and very complicated when Nick begins to suspect that everything Alan has told him about their father, their mother, their past, and what they are doing is a complete lie. . . .
Download or read book The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm written by James Napoli and published by Union Square + ORM. This book was released on 2010-09-07 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tolerate ignorance? Really? So not necessary. This laugh-out-loud dictionary is the perfect lesson in snarkiness. Why suffer the tiny minds of the plebian rabble with whom you come in daily contact, reasons James Napoli, executive vice president of the National Sarcasm Society. So, with The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm, he provides an A–Z guide to turn to whenever you need to set someone straight. From advertisements to e-mail, materialism to remote controls, there’s a witty answer for every situation. “You have been waiting patiently for a dictionary like this to come along. And now it is here,” recognizes Napoli. “Not that you give a crap.”
Download or read book Shakespeare Unlearned written by Adam Zucker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-09-26 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shakespeare Unlearned dances along the borderline of sense and nonsense in early modern texts, revealing overlooked opportunities for understanding and shared community in words and ideas that might in the past have been considered too silly to matter much for serious scholarship. Each chapter pursues a self-knowing, gently ironic study of the lexicon and scripting of words and acts related to what has been called 'stupidity' in work by Shakespeare and other authors. Each centers significant, often comic situations that emerge -- on stage, in print, and in the critical and editorial tradition pertaining to the period -- when rigorous scholars and teachers meet language, characters, or plotlines that exceed, and at times entirely undermine, the goals and premises of scholarly rigor. Each suggests that a framing of putative 'stupidity' pursued through lexicography, editorial glossing, literary criticism, and pedagogical practice can help us put Shakespeare and semantically obscure historical literature more generally to new communal ends. Words such as 'baffle' in Twelfth Night or 'twangling' and 'jingling' in The Tempest, and characters such as Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Holofernes the pedant, might in the past have been considered unworthy of critical attention -- too light or obvious to matter much for our understanding of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Adam Zucker's meditation on the limits of learnedness and the opportunities presented by a philology of stupidity argues otherwise.
Download or read book The Complete Idiot s Guide to a Smart Vocabulary written by Paul McFedries and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Defines over 1,000 words in subject areas such as people, computers, business, law, culture, and government, as well as foreign terms and new words.
Download or read book Unusually Stupid Politicians written by Kathryn Petras and published by Villard. This book was released on 2009-03-12 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras, bestselling authors of the scathingly funny Unusually Stupid Americans and Unusually Stupid Celebrities, now set their bipartisan sights on the hallowed halls of the United States government. Unusually Stupid Politicians exposes the mind-boggling but true political mishaps, missteps, and miscues that have even the savviest spin doctors shaking their heads and saying “No comment.” Sections include • Extreme Hairsplitting–such as when Florida governor Jeb Bush, after being accused of hiding in a closet from rampaging Democrats, denied the allegation completely, stating that “it was actually a boiler room” • Brilliant and Innovative Ideas from The Pentagon– like their groundbreaking "Gay Bomb," their "Bad Breath Inducing" halitosis weapon and their plans to enlist The Three Stooges in the fight against terror. • Creative Political Excuses——such as “I just discovered I’m Jewish and it’s a Holy Day,”——used by Senator George Allen, who, after learning of his Jewish heritage, got out of a Senate hearing to “observe” Yom Kippur • The Most Egregiously Large Political Egos–measured in standard Chuck Schumer Ego Units (CSEUs) This hilarious and eye-opening exposé gives awards for “How I Blew My Campaign” and “Worst Campaign Ad,” and shares a list of candidates “endorsed by God,” as well as a list of those who lost because of Satan. So turn off C-SPAN and quit text-messaging congressional pages–you’re about to learn what the definition of “is” is.
Download or read book Unusually Stupid Celebrities written by Kathryn Petras and published by Villard. This book was released on 2009-04-22 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greeks honored Zeus, the Romans revered Juno, but modern civilization worships a different sort of god: Celebrity. Face it, we follow the stars’ every move, fashion choice, and deliciously dishy affairs. Now Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras, authors of Unusually Stupid Americans, pull the demanding divas, screwball stars, and celebu-twits off their pedestals–and prove it doesn’t take a degree in rocket science to become famous. Cases in point: • Courtney Love misses an important court date relating to “possession of a controlled substance” because she can’t find a professional bodyguard at the last minute. • Mariah Carey’s entourage includes a skirt-from-touching-floor specialist, a towel hand-off person, and a professional drink holder/lifter. • Savvy traveler Paris Hilton concludes that all of Europe is, “like, French.” • Mensa candidate and rocker Tommy Lee is pretty sure that Winston Churchill was president during the Civil War, that the numeric equivalent of pi is “the two-equals-MC-squared thing,” and that an isosceles triangle is “somewhere in Bermuda.” Feuds, faith, family, money, sex, tantrums, travel–no star-studded stone is left unturned. Filled with jaw-dropping anecdotes, quirky quotes, and special stupid-celebrity awards, Unusually Stupid Celebrities provides a red-faced glimpse of the red carpet.
Download or read book The Century Dictionary written by William Dwight Whitney and published by . This book was released on 1891 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dictionary of Visual Discourse written by Barry Sandywell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 723 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This substantial and ambitious dictionary explores the languages and cultures of visual studies. It provides the basis for understanding the foundations and motivations of current theoretical and academic discourse, as well as the different forms of visual culture that have come to organize everyday life. The book is firmly placed in the context of the 'visual turn' in contemporary thought. It has been designed as an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary introduction to the vocabularies and grammars of visuality that inform thinking in the arts and humanities today. It also offers insight into the philosophical frameworks which underpin the field of visual culture. A central theme that runs throughout the entries is the task of moving away from a narrow understanding of visuality inherited from traditional philosophy toward a richer cultural and multi-sensorial philosophy of concrete experience. The dictionary incorporates intertextual links that encourage readers to explore connections between major themes, theories and key figures in the field. In addition the author's introduction provides a comprehensive and critical introduction which documents the significance of the visual turn in contemporary theory and culture. It is accompanied by an extensive bibliography and further reading list. As both a substantive academic contribution to this growing field and a useful reference tool, this book offers a theoretical introduction to the many languages of visual discourse. It will be essential reading for graduate students and scholars in visual studies, the sociology of visual culture, cultural and media studies, philosophy, art history and theory, design, film and communication studies.
Download or read book How PowerPoint Makes You Stupid written by Franck Frommer and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2012-02-07 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With over 500 million users worldwide, Microsoft's PowerPoint software has become the ubiquitous tool for nearly all forms of public presentation—in schools, government agencies, the military, and, of course, offices everywhere. In this revealing and powerfully argued book, author Franck Frommer shows us that PowerPoint's celebrated ease and efficiency actually mask a profoundly disturbing but little-understood transformation in human communication. Using fascinating examples (including the most famous PowerPoint presentation of all: Colin Powell's indictment of Iraq before the United Nations), Frommer systematically deconstructs the slides, bulleted lists, and flashy graphics we all now take for granted. He shows how PowerPoint has promoted a new, slippery “grammar,” where faulty causality, sloppy logic, decontextualized data, and seductive showmanship have replaced the traditional tools of persuasion and argument. How PowerPoint Makes You Stupid includes a fascinating mini-history of PowerPoint's emergence, as well as a sobering and surprising account of its reach into the most unsuspecting nooks of work, life, and education. For anyone concerned with the corruption of language, the dumbing-down of society, or the unchecked expansion of “efficiency” in our culture, here is a book that will become a rallying cry for turning the tide.
Download or read book The Complete Idiot s Guide to Weird Word Origins written by Paul McFedries and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-08-05 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get ready to chew the fat. This engaging, humorous new book explains the not-so-common origins of such commonly used phrases as “apple-pie order,” “chew the fat,” and “hat trick.” Presented in a fun, easy-to-read style, it provides entertaining insight on metaphorical phrases, weird words, and strange expressions and takes readers on a journey through the bizarre and eccentric origins that make up our everyday speech. • Word books have gained in popularity not just with students and linguaphiles, but with a general population interested in the fascinating development of our language. • Contains back stories for 500 intriguing words and phrases. • Fun to flip through and also fun to read cover to cover.
Download or read book A trilingual Dictionary being a comprehensive lexicon in English Urd and Hind exhibiting the syllabication pronunciation and etymology of English words with their explanation in English and in Urd and Hind in the Roman characters written by Mathurā-Prasāda Miśra and published by . This book was released on 1865 with total page 1356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Hebrew and English lexicon of the Old Testament written by Francis Brown and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 1166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reading for the Plot written by Peter Brooks and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book which should appeal to both literary theorists and to readers of the novel, this study invites the reader to consider how the plot reflects the patterns of human destiny and seeks to impose a new meaning on life.