humor 23
It Ain’t Funny: Or, Why We Don’t Laugh Together
The laughter of a faithless culture is bitter, derisive. It no longer springs from a merry heart but from dry bones. A culture of faith is a culture that can…
Matt Walsh’s Racial Reckoning
While it is impossible to be sure what the ultimate cultural importance of this movie will be, I do think Walsh has hit a nerve.
A SNOOT’s Dream Deferred: A Review of Dictionary of Fine Distinctions
I suppose when it comes to discussions of the English language, I prefer sterner stuff.
P.G. Wodehouse and the Idea of Genius
We might not use the word “genius” in all these contexts, but the mystery is the same. Where did this exceptional ability come from? Is it just another trait like…
Goodbye, Norm Macdonald
What all these most profound culture-makers have in common is death-mindedness, which gives them the ability to fully pursue their art, because they don’t pay as much mind to the…
The Holy Waters, the Bra Tree, and The Unexpected: A Study in Contrasts; Or, Gone Fishin’ (Again)
And then comes the last kayak, plenty buoyant, and in it a beauty contestant in minimal black swimwear.
And Then Came the Chickens, Part Two: A Dispatch from Dumb-Ass Acres
“Bawk-bawk be-gehk!” she cries, and I know just where she’s coming from.
And Then Came The Chickens—After the Bobcat: A Dispatch
Heaven favored me with three successive clement weekends.
From the Nut House (And Into the Nut House) the Bar Jester Returns!
They should be required to share a double bed and commit adultery with each other every night—twice if possible.
Bar Jester’s Writing Seminar II; or, How to Write Like a Philosopher
If you want to write worse than the average undergraduate male, consider philosophy.
Oneself as Another in the Controlled Burn: A Dispatch
Low flames and smoke and visions of the eschaton.
Something’s Fishy–But Not Very–At Dinnertime
Ingham County, MI As darkness falls upon what a friend of mine charitably calls “Jack-Ass Acres,” and as the promise of rain comes with the moving clouds at the end…
On Being a Worthy Heir of the Agrarian Contrarians
But, as Shakespeare wrote, we sometimes “by indirections find directions out.”
Of Dullards, Whales, Frustrations, and Shirts Like Fetters
What of those who have never once thought it their duty to amuse their readers?
Bar Jester Chronicles 12(A): “The Way to Bliss” (A Work of Fiction–Sort of)
Nor was it his great and almost constant tumescence, which his grey polyester pants could never quite sufficiently hide.
The Bar Jester’s Unpremeditated Verse
But as a profound poet trying to make a comfortable living I can’t really trouble myself about that fit audience though few. . . . Were I to start thinking…
The Bar Jester Chronicles 7: Morning Cyanide
Rock Island, IL “Morning Cyanide” is a fun game for the whole family. The best thing about it is this: not everyone has to be awake at the same time…
The American Aesop
Hillsdale, MI. It is said that Aesop, despite making all his characters animals and thus avoiding being Nathan to his contemporary Davids, was finally thrown over a cliff by the…