Waxing Nostalgic....Scratch That....I want some Indecorous, Lecherous, Humorously Coarse Letterwork

Last summer I was deeply inspired by a piece of work that helped me get through rough times.  As I settle myself, despite feelings of disorientation about rooting down in unfamiliar surroundings, I found comfort in recalling its message.

I'm going to ante up.  Last week was so beautiful with the hiking, the Hesse, and the Oooooommmmming - especially with all the tumultuous upheaval of moving, I had planned to do a repeat this week.  My brain needed it.  Moving and settling (and everything else thrown into the mix) are Big Business!  Just because I was "Oomming" last week doesn't mean I am Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, or Anthony Robbins!  I wanted to talk about a book that would have a calming effect on me.  I wanted to talk about a book that had possibly been a life-saver and could do its magic again, simply by talking about it. 

Cosmic providence again stepped in.  This time it was in the shape of a blessedly BADD connection I've formed over the last year.  She urged me to write about the book that I was already talking about this week.  So I'm not cheating here, even though I wanted to talk about a vastly different, magical book.  I'm going to talk about the book that I really read this week.  And I feel so clean now doing it, even if I got some dirty laughs.

Besides, I needed it.  The base humor worked a charm.  The faucet for laughter here at the end of these kinds of sentences wasn't as dried up as my hot water tap.  Here I stand having immense fun at the opportunity to type s-l-o-w-ly words like: lascivious, licentious, lewd, and salacious.  The remarkable thing about it is... I feel honest!  At least I am telling it like it is.  Here is the book I really found comfort in reading this week (what I won't go into detail about is the 500 page book I am in the middle of and wow...).

I got some cheap laughter out of reading the little tidbits of this book.  I'm laughing even more now while I confess to succumbing to pleasure in these pages which may be described as lascivious, licentious, lewd, and salacious in demeanor (even if demeanor shouldn't keep company with those kinds of words).  The punchline is... it's really quite a clever little book.  I'm speaking of Anguished English by Richard Lederer.  For some bawdy reason I've carried it with me through the states of.. moving.  I think I bought it when I was a teacher and thought it would be a witty tool in expressing to students the value of personal editing.  I promise I utilized the more innocent tidbits from it.  This week I've been in my bedroom cackling over it. 

All that talk about it, and I simply must share some of it.  The basis of the book is mockery, mockery of phrases, headlines, statements, quotes that made it to print - but didn't carry the intended meaning.  Lesson of the book is: be careful what you udder.

From the chapter "Two-Headed Headlines:"  

• CHILD'S STOOL GREAT FOR USE IN GARDEN
• IDAHO GROUP ORGANIZES TO HELP SERVICE WIDOWS
• IS THERE A RING OF DEBRIS AROUND URANUS?

Believe me I could go on the rest of the night sharing this stuff.  But I am laughing very loudly now, and I don't want to wake my son.

The point is, if there must be one, is that I found comfort in a book this week.  Finally, even though these little tidbits of letterprint are hilarious, they were really printed without that intended purpose.  I'll try to keep this last lesson in mind as I go back to a little bit more of the reading. 

Divine intervention thankfully has presented itself again and I am now pondering an exchange of the words cosmic providence for comic providence.