In Light of All the World Events....

.....I am still going to risk something potentially humorous. This has never pretended to be a political blog, and if one waits till all the earth's inhabitants congeal in a warm fuzzy blob of like-mindedness.....well......anyway......if you're looking for commentary on current events, look elsewhere. Cause, I'm just sick to death (and at heart) of politicians, news media, and most of all, I'm sick of judges.
_____________________

While up in Rochester for the three month stay after Loren's heart transplant, you may remember my visiting a nearby store that carried used and rare books. One of the gems that I picked up was, "Irvin Cobb At His Best." I thought myself unfamiliar with his work, but now realize that I had read a wonderful book, "Old Judge Priest," by the same author, Irvin Cobb.

Something must have rung a bell in my subconscious, for I plucked it from the shelf, read a few excerpts and determined to bid the proprietor down in price. I am so glad that I did. Having nearly finished, "Irvin Cobb at His Best, I would highly recommend him to anyone. Cobb wields the written word with much skill, using phrases and words in uniquely witty ways. Here is an example, as he compares doctors and tailors before undergoing an operation:

So far as I have been able to observe, the surgeons and the tailors of these times share but one common instinct: If you go to a new surgeon or to a new tailor he is morally certain, after looking you over, that the last surgeon you had, or the last tailor, did not do your cutting properly. There, however, is where the resemblance ends. The tailor, as I remarked in effect just now, wants an hour at least in which to decide how he may best cover up and disguise the irregularities of the human form; in much less time than that the surgeon has completely altered the form itself.

With the surgeon it is very much as it is with those learned men who write those large impressive works of reference which should be permanently in every library, and which we are forever buying from an agent because we are so passionately addicted to payments. If the thing he seeks does not appear in the contents proper he knows exactly where to look for it. "See appendix," says the historian to you in a footnote. "See appendix," says the surgeon to himself, the while humming a cheery refrain. And so he does.

(taken from pg. 27, "Irvin Cobb At His Best," by Irvin Cobb. Doubleday Doran & Company, INC. New York, 1929)

I don't think this necessarily appropriate for those below 15, not for the very occasional word that some might object to, but because Cobb often uses words that are seldom heard in everyday language. Someone too young would miss half of the humor, at least.

More literature recommendations at a later date, pending the whims of "Ma."

Tweet