Humor

A Touching Homage to a Beloved Pet from America's Foremost Playwright

Renowned playwright Eugene O’Neill composed this work in 1940 to comfort his wife about the death of their Dalmatian, Blemie. Better known for his despairing and pessimistic dramas, O’Neill’s touching piece, written in the voice of the dying pet, is somehow uplifting and joyous in its touching memory of a life shared between owner and animal. It is sure to comfort anyone experiencing the loss of a beloved, furry member of the family.  This short work is part of Applewood’s “American Roots” series, tactile mementos of American passions by some of America’s most famous writers.

Akron Beacon Journal cartoonist Web Brown was one of the best political cartoonists in America during World War II. After serving in the Spanish-American War, Brown returned to the States and began a forty-six-year career lasting from 1899 through 1945. Before and during the Second World War, Brown's cartoons lampooned Hitler, Mussolini and Japan with a strong sense of justice, humor and history. Featured six days a week in the Journal, his work boosted morale at home and lifted the spirits of soldiers overseas. Compiling more than two hundred of Brown's best cartoons, Akron native and author Tim Carroll recalls the history of World War II through the outstanding creations of one of Akron's most prolific and noteworthy artists.

Cincinnatians today wrap themselves in a comforting blanket of serene conformity, soothed by the myth that the Queen City has always been a bland, somewhat Germanic, little backwater. History tells us otherwise. Old Cincinnati was a pretty strange place. UFOs? Witchcraft? Sea monsters? Occult societies? Public executions? All very common in Old Cincinnati. Over its history, this burgeoning river metropolis pursued the unusual, the sensational and the controversial. Cincinnati was big--among the ten largest U.S. cities. And it was rude and crude, still shaking off the dust from its years as a frontier outpost. Much of the popular nightlife then would be illegal today. Buckle up as author Greg Hand leads a rambunctious tour through the old, weird Cincinnati.

The first personality assessment book of its kind, this fun and innovative classic from 1927 helped set the standard for interactive gamebooks. 

Innovative co-authors Mary Alden Hopkins and Doris Webster helped establish our enduring fascination with self-improvement by cleverly formulating a personality test that employs the easy-to-use format of a game. Here’s how it works. 

 

I’ve Got Your Number presents readers with a group of five categories containing five questions each. Your answers to the questions in each category determine your “number”, and your number reveals insights into your personality gleaned directly from your responses. A wide range of categories provide a well-rounded accounting of your personal qualities.  

 

What attributes should you look for in your ideal romantic partner? How do you best thrive at work? What traits might be holding you back? These topics, and so many more, are addressed within the pages of this quality facsimile edition of the original book. 

 

This fun and useful framework for self-analysis has delighted readers for decades and set the stage for others to come. Before there was Myers-Brigges, there was Hopkins and Webster. Indeed, nearly one hundred years later, the personality assessment presented in I’ve Got Your Number proves that while times change, our quest for self-knowledge remains constant. 

 

There is nothing funnier to a Bay Stater than hearing those from out of town trying to pronounce tongue-twister town names.

Leo-Minster? Who’s Leo? Quin-zee? There’s no Z in there! As it turns out, these towns with funny names are full of wonderful, surprisingly untold stories. Some are hilarious: a landlocked sailing-themed amusement park run by a man who built himself a house that looks exactly like a boat. Some are inspiring: a city’s outpouring of support for enslaved people fighting for their freedom. Others are simply delightful: two women rejecting oppressive Victorian social standards and embarking on a joyful, long-distance adventure.

Local author Amanda Rotondo offers this amusing collection of place names and stories, providing a window into the worlds of the fascinating people who helped make these towns the unique places they are today.

In 1880, the great American author and humorist Mark Twain wrote his essay On the Decay of the Art of Lying for a Historical and Antiquarian Club meeting in Hartford, Connecticut. Twain's humorous and satirical voice is in full flower, as he discusses the universal pastime of lying, and suggests that judicious lying should be encouraged and cultivated – as long as one strives …to lie with a good object, and not an evil one; to lie for others' advantage, and not our own; to lie healingly, charitably, humanely, not cruelly, hurtfully, maliciously…  This short work is part of Applewood's American Roots series, tactile mementos of American passions by some of America's most famous writers and thinkers.

The Goops they lick their fingers,/And the Goops they lick their knives, /They spill their broth on the tablecloth -/Oh, they lead disgusting lives! The rhymes and drawings in this hilarious introduction to manners for children still amuse and educate 100 years later, providing lessons valuable today and shedding light on turn-of-the-century American mores.

This humorous book filled with cartoons describes how the MoonPie affects all aspects of life, such as courtship, childrearing, construction, television, magazines, and movies. It explains MoonPie etiquette and how the treat should be used on social occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries. Also included are the history, vast folklore, and "noble" traditions associated with this great American institution.

More Southern Christmas spirit than you can handle!

Cyndi Lou finds herself in a quite a fix when her beau, Billy Ray, tries to secure her affection with an assortment of Christmas gifts. This sounds like a pretty good deal for Cyndi Lou and her Memaw, but when the gifts go on for twelve days straight and include such Christmas "treasures" as razorback hogs, live catfish, and a dozen possums, it's hard for Cyndi Lou to really get into the Christmas spirit. What with all of the armadillos and those Nascar racers taking up residence in the double-wide, is it any wonder the sheriff has to put Memaw in the sanitarium? This enchantingly fractured version of the well-known rhyme for adults will truly "bless your heart!"