{"product_id":"2940014276948","title":"Toaster's Handbook","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003ePREFACE\u003cbr\u003eON THE POSSESSION OF A SENSE OF HUMOR\u003cbr\u003eTOASTERS, TOASTMASTERS AND TOASTS\u003cbr\u003eTOASTER'S HANDBOOK\u003cbr\u003eINDEX\u003cbr\u003ePREFACE\u003cbr\u003eNothing so frightens a man as the announcement that he is expected to\u003cbr\u003erespond to a toast on some appallingly near-by occasion. All ideas he\u003cbr\u003emay ever have had on the subject melt away and like a drowning man he\u003cbr\u003eclutches furiously at the nearest solid object. This book is intended\u003cbr\u003efor such rescue purpose, buoyant and trustworthy but, it is to be hoped,\u003cbr\u003enot heavy.\u003cbr\u003eLet the frightened toaster turn first to the key word of his topic in\u003cbr\u003ethis dictionary alphabet of selections and perchance he may find toast,\u003cbr\u003estory, definition or verse that may felicitously introduce his remarks.\u003cbr\u003eThen as he proceeds to outline his talk and to put it into sentences, he\u003cbr\u003emay find under one of the many subject headings a bit which will happily\u003cbr\u003eand scintillatingly drive home the ideas he is unfolding.\u003cbr\u003eWhile the larger part of the contents is humorous, there are inserted\u003cbr\u003emany quotations of a serious nature which may serve as appropriate\u003cbr\u003eliterary ballast.\u003cbr\u003eThe jokes and quotes gathered for the toaster have been placed under the\u003cbr\u003esubject headings where it seemed that they might be most useful, even at\u003cbr\u003ethe risk of the joke turning on the compilers. To extend the usefulness\u003cbr\u003eof such pseudo-cataloging, cross references, similar and dissimilar to\u003cbr\u003ethose of a library card catalog, have been included.\u003cbr\u003eShould a large number of the inclusions look familiar, let us remark\u003cbr\u003ethat the friends one likes best are those who have been already tried\u003cbr\u003eand trusted and are the most welcome in times of need. However, there\u003cbr\u003eare stories of a rising generation, whose acquaintance all may enjoy.\u003cbr\u003eNearly all these new and old friends have before this made their bow in\u003cbr\u003eprint and since it rarely was certain where they first appeared, little\u003cbr\u003eattempt has been made to credit any source for them. The compilers\u003cbr\u003ehereby make a sweeping acknowledgment to the \"funny editors\" of many\u003cbr\u003ebooks and periodicals.\u003cbr\u003eON THE POSSESSION OF A SENSE OF HUMOR\u003cbr\u003e\"Man,\" says Hazlitt, \"is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he\u003cbr\u003eis the only animal that is struck with the difference between what\u003cbr\u003ethings are and what they ought to be.\" The sources, then, of laughter\u003cbr\u003eand tears come very close together. At the difference between things as\u003cbr\u003ethey are and as they ought to be we laugh, or we weep; it would depend,\u003cbr\u003eit seems, on the point of view, or the temperament. And if, as Horace\u003cbr\u003eWalpole once said, \"Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to\u003cbr\u003ethose who feel,\" it is the thinking half of humanity that, at the sight\u003cbr\u003eof life's incongruities, is moved to laughter, the feeling half to\u003cbr\u003etears. A sense of humor, then, is the possession of the thinking half,\u003cbr\u003eand the humorists must be classified at once with the thinkers.\u003cbr\u003eIf one were asked to go further than this and to give offhand a\u003cbr\u003edefinition of humor, or of that elusive quality, a sense of humor, he\u003cbr\u003emight find himself confronted with a difficulty. Yet certain things\u003cbr\u003eabout it would be patent at the outset: Women haven't it; Englishmen\u003cbr\u003ehaven't it; it is the chiefest of the virtues, for tho a man speak with\u003cbr\u003ethe tongues of men and of angels, if he have not humor we will have none\u003cbr\u003eof him. Women may continue to laugh over those innocent and innocuous\u003cbr\u003eincidents which they find amusing; may continue to write the most\u003cbr\u003edelightful of stories and essays--consider Jane Austen and our own Miss\u003cbr\u003eRepplier--over which appreciative readers may continue to chuckle;\u003cbr\u003eEnglishmen may continue, as in the past to produce the most exquisite of\u003cbr\u003ethe world's humorous literature--think of Charles Lamb--yet the\u003cbr\u003efundamental faith of mankind will remain unshaken: women have no sense\u003cbr\u003eof humor, and an Englishman cannot see a joke! And the ability to \"see a\u003cbr\u003ejoke\" is the infallible American test of the sense of humor.\u003cbr\u003eBut taking the matter seriously, how would one define humor? When in\u003cbr\u003edoubt, consult the dictionary, is, as always, an excellent motto, and,\u003cbr\u003efollowing it, we find that our trustworthy friend, Noah Webster, does\u003cbr\u003enot fail us. Here is his definition of humor, ready to hand: humor is\u003cbr\u003e\"the mental faculty of discovering, expressing, or appreciating\u003cbr\u003eludicrous or absurdly incongruous elements in ideas, situations,\u003cbr\u003ehappenings, or acts,\" with the added information that it is\u003cbr\u003edistinguished from wit as \"less purely intellectual and having more\u003cbr\u003ekindly sympathy with human nature, and as often blended with pathos.\" A\u003cbr\u003efriendly rival in lexicography defines the same prized human attribute\u003cbr\u003emore lightly as \"a facetious turn of thought,\" or more specifically in\u003cbr\u003eliterature, as \"a sportive exercise of the imagination that is apparent\u003cbr\u003ein the choice and treatment of an idea or theme.\"","brand":"Tea Time eBooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073913274608,"sku":"2940014276948","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014276948_p0.jpg?v=1763604906","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014276948","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}