Weirdest real book titles

Yes, for real. Posted on one of my other blogs:

1986: Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality (Brunner/Mazel)
1989: How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art (Ten Speed Press)
1994: Highlights in the History of Concrete (British Cement Association)
1995: Reusing Old Graves (Shaw & Son)
2002: Living With Crazy Buttocks (Kaz Cooke - Penguin)
2003: The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories (Kensington Publishing)
2004: Bombproof Your Horse (J A Allen)
2005: People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It (Gary Leon Hill - Red Wheel/Weiser Books)
2006: The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification (Harry N Abrams)

Intrigued? Read on, you'll thank me.

Bad Attitude on Yom Kippur (the pendant)

Bad Karma On The Kippur (better late than never)

In the frantic rush of the new semester, I forgot to post this Yom Kippur comedy piece (note to self: squeeze a catalogue entry into the very narrow space at the back of the file drawer, along with those on German humor, English cuisine, English music, Israeli manners, and French humility):

Best line of the year

A friend's reference to How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read reminded me of this anecdote from another acquaintance in academe.  While still a graduate student, he became deeply disillusioned (note: this is supposed to happen much later) when he heard one of his professors respond to another:

"Have I read it??!! I haven't even taught it."

It's a wonderful life

artsy professor remarking, on way into a lecture hall (with an unusually balanced sense of drama as well as irony):

 "my life is glorious, extravagant, catastrophic"