A Newsletter of Humorous Writing #17
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
For January 11-17, 2018, a roundup of the week's finest prose humor and prose humor-related news.
Hello and welcome to a Newsletter of Humorous Writing, the email propaganda arm of the acclaimed humorous readings show, An Evening of Humorous Readings. Just spitballing here: Who do you think would win in a slapstick tournament where the competitors were Laurel and Hardy and Abbot and Costello, and the first round brackets were Laurel vs. Costello and Hardy vs. Abbot? Let us know via email!
What We Enjoyed This Week
Salary Negotiation Tactics for When You’re Just Cool With Whatever Your Boss Thinks by Sarah Nowak (Reductress)
I Just Had One of Those Life-Changing Bumps on the Head by David Guzman (The New Yorker)
I Think All People Should Be Treated Equally, Regardless of Whether Their Skin is White or Purple or Green or Black or Black or Black or Black or Black by Chas Gillespie (McSweeney's)
In Honor of LL Cool J’s Fiftieth Birthday, Fifty Other Things Ladies Love by Lulu Miller (The New Yorker) Happy fiftieth, LL!
An Old Favorite
Oscar Wilde by Dorothy Parker
This week we bring you Dorothy Parker writing about Oscar Wilde--a veritable matryoshka doll of old favorites.
Updates From Your Hosts and Friends of the Show
Brian wrote a piece about paywalls for Splitsider! You should definitely click over to read it, you stupid fucking idiot.
Other Humorous Writing News
We were walloped this week to hear that The Awl and The Hairpin are being shuttered. These were spaces that encouraged new and different stories--where the writing was fun and the voices were strong. And it might seem trivial, but they even paid a little while letting writers find themselves, which is something that is sadly all too rare on the web. The Nation has a nice eulogy linking to some classic pieces on Adventure Time, raising chickens in Oakland, McRibs, and reviews of the weather.
We hope that in some small way, we can use this newsletter to help continue the mission of The Awl and The Hairpin: to celebrate writers and give you some damn good things to read. It's a shame they're gone. The internet has lost a strange and wonderful place.
News About The Next Show
Just as the wise, stealthy leopard silently, patiently stalks the majestic gazelle (or sometimes the goofy monkey) before pouncing on it and devouring it, so too are we taking our time and lulling a new venue into a false sense of security before pouncing on it and hosting a show at it. Keep an eye on this space for updates!
Did we miss a piece you loved? Did you love a piece we mentioned? Let us know! This is an experiment and we're hoping to continue to make it better and better. If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please respond to us or this email and tell us what the score is.
See you next week!
@brianagler, @lukevburns, & @jamesfolta
See you next week!
@lukevburns & @jamesfolta
We started this newsletter with our dear friend Brian Agler, and we want it to always honor his memory and his love of all things humorous. You can find our newsletter tribute to Brian here.
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If you have any thoughts, notes, wishes, or dreams for this newsletter, please email us or respond to this email and tell us what the score is!