Contemplating whether John Wayne ever went to a baby shower is of high rank among idle thoughts enlisted for literary—or at least journalistic—service. And Ben Killingsworth put it to good use in one of the 101 weekly columns he... Read More

We all know Wikipedia, so there must be a Wikidictionary, right? Not exactly, but Derek Abbott has created "Wickedictionary", a volume of humorous definitions in the vein of Ambrose Bierce’s collection, The Devil’s Dictionary,... Read More

The divide between free speech and hate speech is as uncomfortable to define as it is to discuss. When broached in casual conversation, passionate reactions often supplant a civil discourse about the context of the speech in question.... Read More

Barry Parham is a contributor to the political and social satire blogs on Open Salon (open.salon.com). Blush: Politics and Other Unnatural Acts may be a collection of his previously posted entries on this site. The emphasis is on the... Read More

Joshua Wisenbaker’s irreverent instructional guide on manhood can be categorized with books like Adam Carolla’s In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks: And Other Complaints From an Angry Middle-Aged White Guy. A TV and radio... Read More

Writing humor well is a tricky business. It requires a mix of good storytelling and a healthy dose of exaggeration; the funniest stories are often based on personal problems or blunders. With a stand-up comic’s timing, author Keith... Read More

"With One Eye Open" is a snug collection of humor—one part rant, satire, parody and spoof; one part tongue-in-cheek social commentary; one part cautionary caricature. Polly Frost, whose humor has been published in The New Yorker,... Read More

For decades, the weekly New Yorker has been renowned for its “drawings”—the cartoons that reduce complex social and political situations to humorous line-drawing evaluations—as well as for its superlative writing. Some of the... Read More