A funny and incisive collection of essays on oddities of life in the 1980s, from one of America's most cherished humoristsFirst published in 1985, Not Exactly What I Had In Mind is Roy Blount Jr.'s smart and witty examination of the era's most glaring absurdities—from the ever-growing deficit under then-president Reagan to the Game Theory–like levels of strategy required to pack for a vacation. In "Testimonial, Head-on," Blount offers a loving ode to the v...

Now celebrating its fortieth anniversary, Roy Blount Jr.'s classic account of the 1973 Pittsburgh Steelers—a team on the cusp of once-in-a-generation greatnessThe Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s are mentioned in any conversation about the greatest dynasties in NFL history. A year before Pittsburgh's first Super Bowl victory launched a decade of domination, Roy Blount Jr. spent a season traveling with the team, recording the ups and downs, both large and small, in ...

A collection of short pieces about everything from genius and God to socks and lentils, from one of America's most beloved humor writersOne Fell Soup brings together the reviews, diatribes, investigations, meditations, and poetry of Roy Blount Jr., a writer as insightful as he is funny. Culled from his many columns and magazine writings, this volume offers an unparalleled look at the varied interests of a writer the New York Times has compared to M...

A hilarious exploration of male-female communication and other momentous topicsMen don't tell women things for various reasons.1. The things in question may not be true.2. It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a pig than to open it and oink.3. There is a certain pleasure in holding certain considerations close to the chest.4. When there is a t...

Laugh-out-loud observations from "America's foremost humorist" ( Chicago Tribune).What Men Don't Tell Women: Well, that's just for starters. Roy Blount Jr. realized that nearly all of his writing involved things people don't tell people: what Southerners don't tell Northerners, what the sick don't want to hear from the well, what no one would ever tell their mother, and what authors rarely admit to their readers. That all changes in this ...

Nearly eighty years after its release, the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup remains one of the most influential pieces of political satire in history. In Hail, Hail, Euphoria!, bestselling author Roy Blount Jr. tells the history and making of Duck Soup, examining the comedic genius of the Marx Brothers in their finest hour and nine minutes.In Duck Soup, a slim, agile, quick-witted, self-assured young man is summoned to save a nation from financial ru...

“I left the South in search of the Enlightenment. I’m pro-choice, in favor of gay marriage, and against creationism and the war in Iraq. But both my parents’ people are deep Southern from many generations, and I spent a little over a third of my life, including the presumably most formative years (toilet training through college), living in the South. Mathematically, that makes me just about exactly as Southern as the American people, 34 percent of whom are Southern residents. But it goes ...

An eclectic collection from Roy Blount Jr., master of American humor writing*I'll tell you what kind of book I believe in: one that makes people say, at first sight, what the first person who ever saw a camel must have said: "*What in the world is that? " And then, after a while, "Yet it seems to fit together some way."In this laugh-a-minute assortment of essays, travel writing, poems, and even the occasional crossword puzzle, Roy Blount Jr. covers ...

A funny novel of the first "First Husband," from an author who "writes in the grand tradition of such American humorists as Mark Twain and Will Rogers" ( Library Journal).Guy Fox first encountered Clementine on the campus of Dingler College. She was running, stark naked, away from an on-campus protest and the police who were pursuing her. Guy and Clementine's romance wound through turbulent social movements of the '60s and '70s, all the way to Clementine's...

An indispensible guide to southernness from revered humorist and unapologetic curmudgeon Roy Blount Jr.When a simple-talking, peanut-warehousing, grit-eating Southern Baptist Cracker got himself nominated for president of the United States in 1976, it set Roy Blount Jr. to thinking—about the South, about southerners, and about southernness. The result is a collection of savagely funny and insightful takes on redneck heaven, whiskey, blood, possums, and a great numbe...

From the heart of the American South to the African bush, Dispatches from the Gilded Age is a dazzling collection of essays from Julia Reed, one of America's most engaging and insightful chroniclers.Reed's sharp eye and wit illuminate the high and low of a spectacular era, from her first byline covering the shooting of Dr. Herman Tarnower by headmistress Jean Harris, to profiles of luminaries like Andre Leon Talley, Sister Helen Prejean, President George an...

"As if ripped on Old Crow fortified with Adderall, Blount chases letters, words and phrases to their origins, and when stumped he hypothesizes." — The New York TimesDid you know that both mammal and matter derive from baby talk? Have you noticed how wince makes you wince? Ever wonder why so many h-words have to do with breath?Roy Blount Jr. certainly has, and after forty years of making a living using wor...