Read Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker Online
Authors: Henry Finder,David Remnick
Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker
FIERCE
PAJAMAS
AN ANTHOLOGY OF HUMOR WRITING
FROM
THE NEW YORKER
EDITED BY DAVID REMNICK
AND HENRY FINDER
RANDOM HOUSE | NEW YORK
CONTENTS
Death in the Rumble Seat /
Wolcott Gibbs
Dusk in Fierce Pajamas /
E. B. White
Across the Street and into the Grill /
E. B. White
Hassidic Tales, With a Guide to Their Interpretation by the Noted Scholar /
Woody Allen
The Ultimate Diary /
Howard Moss
The Analytic Napkin /
Marshall Brickman
Who’s Who in the Cast /
Marshall Brickman
Health Department Lists Restaurant Violations /
Daniel Menaker
The Delts of Venus /
Charles McGrath
Notes from the Edge Conference /
Roy Blount, Jr.
Love Trouble Is My Business /
Veronica Geng
In the New Canada, Living Is a Way of Life /
Bruce McCall
Stardate 12:00 12:00 12:00 /
Christopher Buckley
Glengarry Glen Plaid /
Frank Cammuso and Hart Seely
What We Talk About When We Talk About Doughnuts /
Michael Gerber and Jonathan Schwarz
Press Agents I Have Known /
Groucho Marx
The Greatest Man in the World /
James Thurber
Let’s Hear It for a Beautiful Guy /
Bruce Jay Friedman
The King of Jazz /
Donald Barthelme
Our Side of the Story /
Veronica Geng
Do You Know Me? /
George W. S. Trow
Gandhi at the Bat /
Chet Williamson
Igor Stravinsky: The Selected Phone Calls /
Ian Frazier
We Are Still Married /
Garrison Keillor
Meeting Famous People /
Garrison Keillor
My Life: A Series of Privately Funded Performance-Art Pieces /
Susan Orlean
The A-List E-List /
David Brooks
Mr. Preble Gets Rid of His Wife /
James Thurber
A Couple of Hamburgers /
James Thurber
Forever Panting /
Peter De Vries
The Kugelmass Episode /
Woody Allen
My Married Life: The Whole Truth Thus Far /
Mark Singer
Life Without Leann /
Larry Doyle
Zeus the Lutheran /
Garrison Keillor
The Very Comical Lament of Pyramus and Thisbe /
Susan Sontag
Here’s a Really Great Idea /
David Owen
A Short Autobiography /
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Cliché Expert Takes the Stand /
Frank Sullivan
The Cliché Expert Tells All /
Frank Sullivan
How to Achieve Success as a Writer /
Ruth Suckow
The Rather Difficult Case of Mr. K
APLAN /
Leonard Q. Ross
The Notebooks of James Thurber /
James Thurber
Are We Losing the Novel Race? /
Michael J. Arlen
Roland Magruder, Freelance Writer /
Calvin Trillin
Contemporary Writers VI: An Interview with Grip Sands /
Philip Hamburger
Selections from the Allen Notebooks /
Woody Allen
I Cover Carter /
George W. S. Trow
Notes on My Conversations /
Polly Frost
Writing Is Easy! /
Steve Martin
Emily Dickinson, Jerk of Amherst /
Andy Borowitz
The People Who Had the House Before /
Robert Benchley
The Catastrophe /
William Shawn
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty /
James Thurber
I Am Not Now, Nor Have I Ever Been, a Matrix of Lean Meat /
S. J. Perelman
Eine Kleine Mothmusik /
S. J. Perelman
Monomania, You and Me Is Quits /
S. J. Perelman
Annoy Kaufman, Inc. /
George S. Kaufman
The Last Repository /
H. F. Ellis
The High Ground, or Look, Ma, I’m Explicating /
Peter De Vries
Apartment 6-A: After the Fall /
Ian Frazier
Hearing from Wayne /
Bill Franzen
He Didn’t Go to Canada /
Garrison Keillor
Keith Richards’ Desert-Island Disks /
Noah Baumbach
How to Be Obscene /
Upton Sinclair
Filling That Hiatus /
Robert Benchley
It’s Fun to Be Fooled . . . It’s More Fun to Know /
Robert Benchley
Why We Laugh—or Do We? /
Robert Benchley
Insert Flap “A” and Throw Away /
S. J. Perelman
How to Eat an Ice-Cream Cone /
L. Rust Hills
Teaching Poetry Writing to Singles /
Veronica Geng
A Reading List for Young Writers /
Ian Frazier
How I Write My Songs /
Donald Barthelme
Save Our Bus Herds! /
Cathleen Schine
Three Great Meals /
William White
Take It from Me /
Nancy Franklin
Changes in the Memory After Fifty /
Steve Martin
The Hundred Greatest Books That I’ve Read /
Steve Martin
Reintroducing Me to My Habitat /
Jack Handey
Thank You for Stopping /
Jack Handey
Homework: A Parent’s Guide /
Christopher Buckley
What Happened to My Money? /
David Owen
On Taxi Drivers /
Alexander Woollcott
Father Isn’t Much Help /
Clarence Day
The Night the Ghost Got In /
James Thurber
Ring Out, Wild Bells /
Wolcott Gibbs
The Ballet Visits the Splendide’s Magician /
Ludwig Bemelmans
Cloudland Revisited: Why, Doctor, What Big Green Eyes You Have! /
S. J. Perelman
Thoughts on Radio-Televese /
John Lardner
The Musical Husbands /
Adam Gopnik
Listening to Bourbon /
Louis Menand
Look Back in Hunger /
Anthony Lane
Tennis Personalities /
Martin Amis
Song to Be Disregarded /
E. B. White
To a Perfumed Lady at the Concert /
E. B. White
Song of the Queen Bee /
E. B. White
Rhyme of an Involuntary Violet /
Dorothy Parker
Mother’s Home Again! /
Don Marquis
Melancholy Reflections After a Lost Argument /
Phyllis McGinley
The Seven Ages of a Newspaper Subscriber /
Phyllis McGinley