Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It

Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It PDF Author: James Geary
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039325495X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
"A witty book about wit that steers an elegant path between waggishness and wisdom." —Stephen Fry Much more than a knack for snappy comebacks, wit is the quick, instinctive intelligence that allows us to think, say, or do the right thing at the right time in the right place. In this whimsical book, James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns are the highest form of wit. Geary reasons that wit is both visual and verbal, physical and intellectual: there’s the serendipitous wit of scientists, the crafty wit of inventors, the optical wit of artists, and the metaphysical wit of philosophers. In Wit’s End, Geary embraces wit in every form by adopting a different style for each chapter; he writes the section on verbal repartee as a dramatic dialogue, the neuroscience of wit as a scientific paper, the spirituality of wit as a sermon, and other chapters in jive, rap, and the heroic couplets of Alexander Pope. Wit’s End agilely balances psychology, folktales, visual art, and literary history with lighthearted humor and acute insight, drawing upon traditions of wit from around the world. Entertaining, illuminating, and entirely unique, Wit’s End demonstrates that wit and wisdom are really the same thing.

Wit's End

Wit's End PDF Author: Sue Scheff
Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.
ISBN: 0757306977
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
A true story tells about a mother who, after realizing the damage done to her daughter upon returning home from a disciplinary educational institution, created an advocacy group to work through the problems of at-risk teenagers and found a way to reconnect with her rebellious daughter using proper methods based on love and understanding. Original. 25,000 first printing.

At Wit's End-Jesus Is There

At Wit's End-Jesus Is There PDF Author: Harold Moore
Publisher: WestBow Press
ISBN: 1664207538
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
Have you ever faced a challenge that was so overwhelming you felt like you were at your wits end? Most of us have! I've been there and have found that when I'm at my wits end the place for me to turn is to Jesus. May I suggest the next time you're at your wits end you look to Jesus. He's there for you!

God at Your Wits' End

God at Your Wits' End PDF Author: Marilyn Meberg
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 9780849918612
Category : Consolation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Author and counselor Meberg probes the corners of the mind to uncover the faulty thinking that leads to an uncertain faith. Complete with thoughtful applications and probing questions, each chapter is designed for either group or personal study and in-depth reflection.

Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombeck PDF Author: Allison Engel
Publisher: Samuel French, Incorporated
ISBN: 9780573705038
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
"From the writers of the smash hit Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins comes a comic look at one of our country's most beloved voices. Erma Bombeck captured the frustrations of her generation by asking, "If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?" Discover the story behind America's most beloved humorist who championed women's lives with wit that sprang from the most unexpected place of all - the truth."

Surviving the Applewhites

Surviving the Applewhites PDF Author: Stephanie S. Tolan
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062213369
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
The side-splittingly funny Newbery Honor Book about a rebellious boy who is sent to a home-schooling program run by one family—the creative, kooky, loud, and loving Applewhites! Jake Semple is notorious. Rumor has it he managed to get kicked out of every school in Rhode Island, and actually burned the last one down to the ground. Only one place will take him now, and that's a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic and hilarious family of artists: poet Lucille, theater director Randolph, dancer Cordelia, and dreamy Destiny. The only one who doesn't fit the Applewhite mold is E.D.—a smart, sensible girl who immediately clashes with the defiant Jake. Jake thinks surviving this new school will be a breeze . . . but is he really as tough or as bad as he seems?

At Wit's End

At Wit's End PDF Author: Louis Kaplan
Publisher: Fordham University Press
ISBN: 0823287572
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Book Description
CHOICE: OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE A scholarly and thought-provoking work that places Jewish humor at the center of a discourse about Jewish and German relations through most of the twentieth century. At Wit’s End explores the fascinating discourse on Jewish wit in the twentieth century when the Jewish joke became the subject of serious humanistic inquiry and inserted itself into the cultural and political debates among Germans and Jews against the ideologically charged backdrop of anti-Semitism, the Jewish question, and the Holocaust. The first in-depth study to explore the Jewish joke as a crucial rhetorical figure in larger cultural debates in Germany, author Louis Kaplan presents an engrossing and lucid work of scholarship that examines how “der jüdische Witz” (referring to both Jewish wit and jokes) was utilized differently in a number of texts, from the Weimar Republic to the rise of National Socialism, and how it was re-introduced into the public sphere after the Holocaust with the controversial publication of Salcia Landmann’s collection of Jewish jokes in the reparations era (Wiedergutmachung). Kaplan reviews the claims made about the Jewish joke and its provocative laughter by notable writers from a variety of ideological perspectives, demonstrating how their reflections on this complex cultural trope enable a better understanding of German–Jewish intercultural relations and their eventual breakdown in the Third Reich. He also illustrates how selfcritical and self-ironic Jewish Witz maintained a fraught and ambivalent relationship with anti-Semitism. In reviewing this critical and traumatic moment in modern German–Jewish history through the deadly discourse on the Jewish joke, At Wit’s End includes chapters on the virulent Austrian anti-Semitic racial theorist Arthur Trebitsch, the Nazi racial propagandist Siegfried Kadner, the German Marxist cultural historian Eduard Fuchs, the Jewish diasporic historian Erich Kahler, and the Jewish cabaret impresario Kurt Robitschek, among others. Shedding new light on anti-Semitism and on the Jewish question leading up to the Holocaust, At Wit’s End provides readers with a unique perspective by which to gain important insights about this crucial historical period that reverberates into the present day, when potentially offensive humor coupled with a toxic political climate and xenophobia can have deadly consequences.

Unleashed

Unleashed PDF Author: Calvin T. Dog
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664221164
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 116

Book Description
Welcome to the world of Calvin, an unusually perceptive and astute canine with great insight and a hint of rogue, whose keen observation skills work overtime on society and culture, philosophy, and theology.

At Wit’s End

At Wit’s End PDF Author: George Kraus
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 1612494714
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
At Wit’s End: Plain Talk on Alzheimer’s for Families and Clinicians, now in its Second Edition, is a straightforward summary of leading advice for understanding and caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease, written without technical jargon and impractical nuance. About one-third of our population will eventually provide care for someone with Alzheimer’s. The strain of caring for a loved one with this disease can be enormous, yet the reward of enhancing a loved one’s quality of life is beyond measure. So, where to begin? Many books delve into other specific areas of Alzheimer’s care, emphasizing the financial and legal challenges, as well as myriad medical treatment needs of those experiencing the disease. Unique among these offerings, At Wit’s End explains the psychiatric and psychological aspects of Alzheimer’s, and does so in a holistic and practical manner. Dr. Kraus focuses on the whole person across his or her full social, psychological, physical, and spiritual life to provide as complete a picture as possible of the changes that are in play. With this broad, thoughtful, and grounded approach, family members, clinicians, and caregivers are better able to discover and make wise choices from a wealth of effective interventions in all areas of care. It also allows them to care for themselves and their families in the dynamic and supportive care process.

The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain

The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain PDF Author: Mark Twain
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 048648923X
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
"Familiarity breeds contempt — and children." "When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear." "Heaven for climate. Hell for company." This attractive paperback gift edition of the renowned American humorist's epigrams and witticisms features hundreds of quips on life, love, history, culture, travel, and other topics from his fiction, essays, letters, and autobiography.