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September 7, 2004

I'm not seeing any royalties, but I won't turn down the Amazon affiliate commission

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Now on sale: May Contain Nuts : A Very Loose Canon of American Humor. Volume 3 of the famed Mirth of a Nation series features — most importantly — a revised version of my PowerPoint Anthology of Literature (gone are Maxim and the Eggers joke, which was really only ever intended for a select audience; in are Pride and Prejudice and -- meta alert! -- May Contain Nuts).

As if two whole new PowerPoint slides aren't worth your $11.17 cents, the book has contributions from many other funny, funny people, including my pals Henry Alford, Kevin Guilfoile, Mark O'Donnell, Alysia Gray Painter, Neal Pollack, Stephen Sherrill, and John Warner.

Posted by Daniel Radosh

Comments

A collection of humor that doesn't include a full day RDA of David Sedaris is a thin meal indeed. And Henry Alford & Mark O'Donnell? Funny - very - but they haven't done any distinctive work in many years.

I know a certain Mr. Tony who would disagree with you about O'Donnell.

No arguments about Sedaris, of course, but one of the nice things about the Mirth books is the chance to discover new writers.

To get seriousish for a second, for the vast majority of the few remaining humorists who still work primarily in essay form, there are very few outlets for their work. (The New Yorker being just about the last). These books are helping to save an unfairly dying art form.

But DIR's argument doesn't really work: O'Donnell and Alford have both written for the NY'er, all of the other writers are prominent. Even that poor schmuck Neal Pollack writes for VF. This book isn't saving anything. It's just rounding up the usual suspects in book form.

Stube:

I'm in the book, but I hardly think you could call me a usual suspect. Does the name Ed Page ring a bell? See? I didn't think so. Even I barely recognize it.

Daniel, your Mirth link is bad. Missing the .com at the end.

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