Frank Carlson Library

Andy Williams. Yoga. Twitter. Costco. What do these things have in common? Well, at one time or another, I blogged something about each of them. As a writer, you are often told to write what you know. This should tell you a lot about how glamorous and exciting this writer's life is. I've put together a number of short essays on these and other fascinating subjects, most of them previously published on one of my blogs, and am offering them as a...

Arthur Black's best lines are like a shot of whisky-sharp, invigorating and with a good kick. Following the success of his many previous titles, the multiple-award-winning humorist once again delivers black-to-black" laughs with his latest collection, Paint the Town Black. With his usual off-kilter perspective, Black tackles many of the pressing topics of the day, including some positive PR for the swastika, the sometimes fatal effects of poor penmanship...

A collection of dumb things the writer texted to his friend, Gary. Gary did not listen to any of these suggestions. You probably did not even read them. That's Gary for you. It is a dust devil of absurdist ideas and configurations. This could be the kind of book you need to read if you are waiting for the volcano to erupt. Author Jeffrey Campbell read some of this book and gave this blurb that's good enough to be on the cover, "Yeah. I think this...

Sink the F**king Putt, a humor book for adults, is a Parody of the well-known Dick and Jane elementary school reading primers. Dick and Jane had become somewhat reclusive since they were the child stars of the early elementary school reading textbooks. Now they are grown up and living with Spot in the basement of Mother and Father's house. In recent times they became far more social but this led to some complications. This book is the zany story...

From the author of The Portable Curmudgeon, a delicious, witty, irreverent A to Z guide to the tics, twitches and safety-valves that characterize our twisted, neurotic modern world. We live in an Age of Anxiety. The events of modern life have overwhelmed the average homo sapiens until getting from Point A to Point B without being overcome by neuroses is a practical impossibility. Enter, the comic safety valve. Jon Winokur's Encyclopedia Neurotica...

Just in time for Christmas comes a collection of the very best holiday essays from the bestselling Mother/Daughter writing duo. Whether their shopping for matching reindeer dog sweaters or having second helpings of eggnog, Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella will keep you warm with their humor and heart. So give yourself some holiday cheer in the midst of all the shopping, cooking, wrapping, and baking madness...you deserve to get a little Happy...

Airports were never built to make travel easier for the public. A psychologist named Brian Brain who was writing a paper on behavioural understanding phoned his mate Bob the Builder and asked him if he had any spare bricks and mortar. When Bob said yes Brian said lets build a place where people can ride on aeroplanes, I can watch how they behave, write a book about it, you can make a few bob from the car parks and well both make a fortune from the...

I don't pretend to be any kind of historian. These stories are just that. In my family back in West Virginia, any story that dickered with the truth was considered to be a yarn. It was intended to be just passed on down to a group of rapt youngsters. These stories do however reflect the life of a young whippersnapper living in a small town in the middle of 20th-century America, and could be a sort of chronicle of same. To witness my yarns all...

I probably watch too much news, read too many newspapers, magazines, and blogs, and have too many conversations with people about politics. Often in my mind, I consider myself better than politicians. I may be better than some but not all of them. What I notice is that I make similar mistakes to those in charge. Because of this, I'm willing to say I'm not perfect. And I have the experiences to prove it. Join me in a journey to tell people why I should...

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Pulp Fiction. Friends. Need I say more? The 90's were hands-down the best years to be alive. You'd come home from school, grab a packet of gushers or dunkaroos as your afternoon snack, and relax on the sofa as you watched your favorite television show reruns. Whatever it is that stands out from your childhood, it's definitely something that puts a smile on your face whenever you think about it. Let's jump back to the...