Book Description
Generations of readers have delighted in the work of the great American humorist Don Marquis, who was frequently compared to Mark Twain. These free-verse poems, which first appeared in Marquis's New York newspaper columns, revolve around the escapades of Archy, the philosophical cockroach who was once a poet, and Mehitabel, a streetwise alley cat who was once Cleopatra. Reincarnated as the lowest creatures on the social scale, they prowl the rowdy streets of New York City in between the world wars. The antics of these two immortal characters are now made available for the first time in their original order of publication in this unique, comprehensive collection, which features many poems never before reprinted.
Customer Reviews:
Charming!.......2007-05-07
Archy is a familiar character in an unfamiliar situation, a witty and sympathetic poet stuck in the body of a cockroach thanks to reincarnation. His cat friend Mehitabel is equally interesting, claiming she is actually the reincarnated Cleopatra, which I think most cats believe. Each poem is funny and memorable, made all the more charming by their e.e. cummings style of writing...because Archy the bug is too small to hit the shift key of his unknowing human's keyboard. He's always in character, which is pretty impressive to write as though one were a cockroach...it almost makes you believe in Archy at any age, and that is a treasure.
I cannot recommend this book enough, though I do say that often in my reviews...because I only review books I love or hate. I LOVE this book. I performed parts of it for competitive Speech in high school and a great many people who hear a great deal of poetry thought it was great. It stands alone in terms of style and subject. I haven't read the annotated version, but I think it should be reviewed because it contains all the original poems and extra material. The extra material is new to me, but the poetry is well worth it and the prices are similar. Just buy this book already! You won't regret it.
The literate cockroach.......2006-08-10
Generations go by, but Don Marquis's cockroach Archy and his pal, the cat Mehitabel, who originally occupied Marquis's New York newspaper columns nearly a century ago, still have the power to move and amuse, and to speak to us about the human condition. This wonderful roach, a free verse poet's soul in a roach's body, wholly deserves the excellent job that Michael Sims has done in providing us with facts about both Marquis's life and his times. Sims's carefully crafted introduction and annotations serve to put Archy's poems in both the context of their era and of their creator's biography. Michael Sims manages here, as he does so skillfully in his other books, to blend erudition and readability in an engaging and intruiging fashion.
For those who are unacquainted with Archy and Mehitabel, the poems will be a welcome and wonderful discovery. For those who already know and enjoy Marquis's work, Sims's edition will provide a fresh and deeper appreciation.
Amazon.com
Of all the literary genres, humor has the shortest shelf life--except for Archy and Mehitabel, that is. First published in 1916, it is a classic of American literature. Archy is a cockroach, inside whom resides the soul of a free-verse poet; he communicates with Don Marquis by leaping upon the keys of the columnist's typewriter. In poems of varying length, Archy pithily describes his wee world, the main fixture of which is Mehitabel, a devil-may-care alley cat.
Archy music will linger in your head long after you finish the book. Here's a tiny taste from his interview with a mummy:
"what ho
my regal leatherface says i
greetings
little scatter footed
scarab
says he"
Writers (particularly journalists) can go lifetimes without attaining such loose-limbed grace. And the illustrations by George Herriman ("Krazy Kat") provide the perfect counterpoint. On top of all that, Marquis did the impossible: he made a cockroach loveable.
Book Description
The now classic tale of Archy the cockroach and Mehitabel the cat in her ninth life. First published in 1927, this free verse poem has become an essential part of American literature.
Customer Reviews:
Archy and Mehitabel.......2007-09-15
A classic book from an author who thoiught outside the box - you'll love it.
classic comedy.......2007-04-14
This is classic humor - and even though it is nearly 100 years old, this is still funny and interesting. In fact, Mehitabel's refrain has become my mantra: "wotthehell wotthehell toujours gai I always say, there's life in the old girl yet."
Archy and Mehitabel a voice from the past.......2007-01-11
When I was in high school, ovefr sixty years ago, I used to read Dan Marquis clever column in, I think, the New York World Telegram and found it a fascinating piece of imagination. Coming back to it now, nothing has changed. In telling the story of the typewriting cockroach and the wayward cat he touches, with great humour, so many of our human foibles and hopes too.
It's a bit of a stretch for todays kids, but I think they can imagine a mechanical typewriter and once they get a hold of this the fantasy should grab them.
The Unique Humor Of Don Marquis.......2006-01-16
Anyone who hasn't read Don Marquis' stories of the adventures of Archie and Mehitabel, have missed what is doubtless one of the world's greatest pieces of humorous literature. These stories delve into history to pull out hysterically humorous aspects of incidents regarding such characters as Cleopatra, and apply them to the lowly day-to-day events in the lives of a cockroach who operates a typewriter, a cat that complains she cannot understand why she is blessed with so many of those damned kittens, and a dead rat that receives glorious last rites by being filed in an alley ash can. No words can do justice to Don Marquis' fantastic imagination and his equally fantastic sense of humor. Anyone who misses this work is to be pitied! A. D. Holcombe
Enlightened cats, cockroaches, spiders and rats.......2004-04-19
Any cat lover who's never been exposed to these yarns from a newspaper columnist is in for a rare treat. A parrot reincarnated from the Bard demeans his own plays, "I knew what the lowbrows wanted and I gave it to them. All I ever wanted to be was a good sonneteer!"
Evidently, all newspaper columnist Marquis ever wanted to be was a sage of human wisdom communicating his astute observations of human behavior through the eyes of a cat reincarnated from Cleopatra, a cockroach and a menagerie of other beautiful non-humans.
I've had three cats named Mehitabel over the past 40 years as a consequence of reading Marquis at too young an age. Naturally each of those felines was reincarnated from a Mehitabel created by the mind of Don Marquis.
Buy this book even if you hate cats.
Average customer rating:
- Very Interesting Book!
- Damn near brilliant
- Surprisingly Endearing and Hilarious
- Worth reading for the poetic prose
- A Great Set-Up! A cockroach becomes human to his disgust!
|
Kockroach: A Novel
Tyler Knox
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0061143332
Release Date: 2006-12-26 |
Book Description
In Kockroach, a wholly original work of literary noir, Tyler Knox brilliantly turns Kafka's The Metamorphosis on its head
It is the mid-1950s, and in a fleabag hotel off Times Square, Kockroach, perfectly content with life as an insect, awakens to discover that somehow he's become, of all things, a human. This tragic turn of events would be enough to fling a more highly evolved creature into despair, but cockroaches know no despair. Firmly entrenched in the present tense, they are awesome coping machines, and so Kockroach copes. Step by step, he learns the ways of humans—how to walk, how to talk, how to wear a jaunty brown fedora.
In Times Square he discovers a blistering sea of lights, a great smoking god, walls of glass laden with food, and the opportunity to rise in the human world. Two companions guide him on his way: Mite, an undersized gangster suffering an acute case of existential angst, and Celia Singer, a reserved woman with a disfigured body who finds in Kockroach a key to unlocking her hidden passions.
As Kockroach, led by his primitive desires and insectile amorality, navigates through the bizarre human realms of crime, business, politics, and sex, he meets with both great triumph and great disaster. Will he find success or be squashed flat from above? Will he change humanity, or will humanity change him?
Packed with love, violence, and a perverse sense of humor, Kockroach is the classic tale of an immigrant's search for the American dream as seen from a stunning new perspective.
Customer Reviews:
Very Interesting Book!.......2007-09-03
Kockroach as many others have pointed out and so does the first paragraph on the book jacket is an excellent twist on Franz Kafka's tale The Metamorphosis. Like another reviewer has also noted it is not a unique idea and has done before with the junior fiction novel Shoebag (Apple Paperbacks) by Mary James. Her novel however was nowhere near as violent or heavy reading as what Tyler Knox has done with Kockroach. Hers was a good book though if you liked the plot of this novel you should read it too.
A cockroach wakes up one morning in the 1950's in the room of a run down New York motel to find to its disgust that it has become a weird creature whose body does not have the great adaptations as it did before. The first part of the book where Kockroach is exploring the world of humans and discovering through interactions with the lesser species all about his new body and life is an hilarious surreal look into our human world. The second part reads like a pulp fiction adventure from yesteryear as Kockroach sets out to become the most powerful figure in the New York mafia world. The story jumped a little bit too quickly to this second storyline for me to rate it five stars. One chapter Kockroach is confused and learning about his new environment and in the next he can speak in conversations and understand most of what those around him are saying. The novel in its entirety is still very good I just would have preferred the first part of the story to continue a bit longer. The reader as they turn the pages also will learn a great deal that they never knew before about their thousands of probably unwelcome housemate the cockroaches.
Highly recommended! By the way if you liked the novel Kockroach by Knox but can't find anything else under his name. That's because he decided to use a pseudonym with this novel that differs a bit from his usual crime ones. His real name is William Lashner and he's got a few books under his real name.
Damn near brilliant.......2007-07-06
Kockroach
On one level, this is an obvious, and very funny
play off of Kafka's Metamorphosis. Instead of a
guy waking up and finding out that he's turned
into a roach, a roach wakes up and finds that
he's become a guy. It's a perfect set-up for a
gag: what kind of a guy does a roach turn into?
Your cousin Louie? Dick Cheyney? Michael Moore?
It should be no surprise that he goes first in to
organized crime, then legitimate business, then politics.
Readers will no doubt assign various contemporary
political figures to the roles laid out in the book-
that's part of the fun, but by no means the whole story.
It would have been tempting for the author-who may
or may not be named `Tyler Knox'-to play this story
strictly for laughs. But Knox is better than that.
What he does is create a combination of the pure
naturalism of John McFee, the noirish vision of
Raymond Chandler and the wiseacre perspective of
Damon Runyon.
Does that sound like a set-up for a parody? It's not.
Instead, it's a book that is so seductive that you'll
find yourself reading it long after your eyes have
started to droop. It's a book whose narrator-the Kockroach's
mite- will stay with you for days after
the read is done.
For fans of complex fiction, this is a gem. The
narrator is a subordinate character who's more
interesting that the `roach of the title. But his
fascination stems from his relationship to the
roach-turned-man. His negotiations of the terms
of that relationship and his unreliable narration
are what gives this book its exceptional power.
Unlike most fiction that relies on a device like
Kockroach's, this novel stayed with me for a long
time. Brilliant might be too big a word for this,
but not by much.
Lynn Hoffman, author of bang BANG, ISBN
9781601640005
Surprisingly Endearing and Hilarious.......2007-06-24
Tyler Knox's new novel has great fun inverting Franz Kafka's famous short story "Metamorphosis" by allowing us to see what might happen if a cockroach were to wake up one day and find himself transformed into--ugh!-- a human. The beginning of the novel focuses on Kockroach's transformation and acclimation to his new pale, fleshy existence and his new, strange world. The first few chapters are highly entertaining and darn ingenious as the author allows us to see how strange and laughable our world is when looked at from an outsider's perspective.
As Kockroach continues on his travels through 1950s-era New York City, he encounters many people along the way, most importantly "Mite", a two-bit hoodlum with dreams of making it big and settling down with Celia Singer, a woman who spends her nights at the all-night diner to people watch and dream of a different life for herself.
Amazingly, Knox pulls off the most interesting accomplishment of the book--he makes the reader like and empathize with Kockroach. While he retains some important, roach-like characteristics--survival being the most vital one--our anthropomorphic hero slowly becomes more human as the book unfolds and reveals just how our flaws make us each unique and special--not our supposed superiority over the natural world. Kockraoch's tour-guide through his new existence, Mite, is also a surprisingly endearing character in all his flawed glory. As he pins all his dreams on the rise of his new-found meal-ticket, Mite becomes a friend and supporter to Kockroach.
What results is a buddy-story unlike any other with a sharp-witted, satirical, campy-noir feel. The book screams to be adapted for film with Christian Bale as the title character. Pick this one up today, and you might just think twice before crushing that roach that you find in the wee hours of the night on your kitchen floor.
Worth reading for the poetic prose.......2007-05-22
I was drawn to this book by the opening line, which is a mock reversal of Kafka's classic opener--this time a cockroach turning into a man. At first I expected this book to be the same all the way through: a joke on the classic existential tale, and was a little disheartened when a new voice, Mite's, was thrown into the mix, as I found his dialect annoying. Mite grew on me, however, and his segments became some of the most interesting in the novel. Also, though this book is not a straight reversal of The Metamorphosis, it is still funny--the biggest joke of all being how very much like the original it is in tone. The world here is dark and futile.
Kockroach's segments are written with humor, very straightfoward dry humor, and often involve descriptions of life as a cockroach, which influence how Kockroach behaves as a human. The segments are somewhat analytical and a bit self-reflective. Not the sort of writing you'd expect in a pulp crime novel.
Mite's segments are told in first person in his very ungrammatical speech; despite lacking grammar, however, Mite is a poet. This book is filled with great writing and language--odd considering Tyler Knox is a pseudonym for a genre writer. Not odd, though, really; I hear from other student writers how "trashy" genre novels have nothing worthwhile, but Knox proves the opposite, how much can be learned from seedy, pulp fiction. This book is worth reading just for the prose, to analyze how it is written.
A Great Set-Up! A cockroach becomes human to his disgust!.......2007-01-28
"Deal with it, that is the cockroach way. When food is scarce, cockroaches don't complain, first they eat their dead, then they eat their young, then they eat each other." "He will adapt, he is a cockroach." The author does indeed pull off the transformation of insect into man, and does it humorously- "Mite rubs a shiny white stone all over his body, creating a weird white froth. Other humans do the same thing, Kockroach takes the same white stone. It is slippery, easily bruised like no stone he has ever touched befor. He licks it and spits out the bitter taste." and with purpose,"Whenever a cocroach sits back and wonders what it's all about, he gets stepped on." This is a morality tale done in a style I find myself cheering on, "Similary Kockroach fails to understand the way some humans are angry at other humans simply because of the sound of their last names, the shape of their eyes, the color of their skins. To him they are all of the lower orders, all humans, and to differentiate among them because of color or accent or the vowels in their last names is to differentiate among defferent orders of feces, all tasty, sure, but still." Or the sexual innuendos, as when killing cockroaches,"..but when those little buggers they're back that night it's hell to pay. You want to kill'em, you got to think like 'em. Not just any crack will do. They like it warm, they like it tight, they like it moist." "Don't we all" replies Kockroach. Or when Kockroach starts thinking, "This thinking, he thinks, is like a sicknes, only you can't sqeeze it out with your morning crap.". Or in describing business, "The world of business is a close to a perfect spot as a cockroach could ever hope to find.". Or money, "Money, he has learned, draws women like flies to feces.". Or, "And what I learned was this: People, theys all liars, and the ones they lying to most of all is theyselves.". And finially, "Senators are cheaper to buy than buildings. Better to sit on a toilet seat than in the Senate.". A great read with humor and purpose.
Average customer rating:
- Kansas
- Correction
- First Impressions
- Sex, Drugs, and Politics
- An awareness that should be taught to todays young Chicanos
|
The Revolt of the Cockroach People
Oscar Zeta Acosta
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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...y no se lo tragó la tierra / ...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him
ASIN: 0679722122
Release Date: 1989-08-28 |
Book Description
The further adventures of "Dr. Gonzo" as he defends the "cucarachas" -- the Chicanos of East Los Angeles.
Before his mysterious disappearance and probable death in 1971, Oscar Zeta Acosta was famous as a Robin Hood Chicano lawyer and notorious as the real-life model for Hunter S. Thompson's "Dr. Gonzo" a fat, pugnacious attorney with a gargantuan appetite for food, drugs, and life on the edge.
In this exhilarating sequel to The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo, Acosta takes us behind the front lines of the militant Chicano movement of the late sixties and early seventies, a movement he served both in the courtroom and on the barricades. Here are the brazen games of "chicken" Acosta played against the Anglo legal establishment; battles fought with bombs as well as writs; and a reluctant hero who faces danger not only from the police but from the vatos locos he champions. What emerges is at once an important political document of a genuine popular uprising and a revealing, hilarious, and moving personal saga.
Customer Reviews:
Kansas.......2003-03-01
Re-Saturday Review of Literature
Oscar Acosta disappeared in Mexico in 1974, not 1971 (the year of his trip to Las Vegas with Dr. Thompson).
Correction.......2003-03-01
Re-Saturday Review of Literature
Oscar Acosta disappeared in Mexico in 1974, not 1971 (the year of his trip to Las Vegas with Dr. Thompson).
First Impressions.......2001-12-05
This is the most realistic book I have ever seen about Mexican American hippies in Aztlan, the Chicanos of the 1960's neo-freedom movements. It will surely become a collector's item worth saving in this era of gung-ho Americanism which does not know the kind of objectivity Acosta displays with regard to how we think and why we believe as we do. Hunter S. Thompson described the author better than I can in his introduction to the book, highlighting his uniqueness while lamenting his untimely passing. I will write more after I give the book a more thorough second reading.
Sex, Drugs, and Politics.......1999-06-17
I read this book after finding out that Oscar Zeta Acosta was the fat Samoan lawyer from "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Acosta's style is similar, with a lot of drugs and sex with minors. The differences are that Acosta isn't tripping the whole time and he has time to incite political rallies. I love when they protest the Catholic church, or when he pleasures himself with some nubile young high schoolers under a blanket during a sit-in.... For those interested in the turbulent times that was the 60s, this is a must-read.
An awareness that should be taught to todays young Chicanos.......1999-04-12
After reading this book, and actually living through those turbulent times of the 60's and 70' s , it was refreshing to read and feel the burning frustration and love that this man was experiencing and the way he expressed his anger against the machine. This type of awareness has been lost , due to us the forefathers of the Chicano Movement, to teach our own and other's children of how important those actions were, so that we may emphasize education, political power and family values. We have implemented a course in Chicano Studies in schools, we now have political representation in our governments, and many more success stories that are due to the work of such people as Cesar Chavez, Ruben Salazar and Corky Gonzales. Oscar Zeta was a man amongst his own that was afraid of nothing and no one.My thanks to him for fighting the powers that be and for creating an example for all of us, regardless of race. You have to stand up for what you believe and Acosta is atrue testament to that.
Average customer rating:
- Juneau 2nd Grader
- crafty cockroach makes friends
- I WAS GLAD I PURCHASED THIS ONE!
- loveable roach?
- Controlling emotions
|
Crickwing
Janell Cannon
Manufacturer: Harcourt Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0152017909 |
Amazon.com
Janell Cannon, best-known for her award-winning picture books Stellaluna and Verdi, departs from the world of bats and snakes and turns her attention to... cockroaches. None of these are particularly cuddly creatures, but seen through Cannon's anthropomorphizing glasses, they are ones we can sympathize with. Crickwing, cruelly named for his twisted wing, is a lonely food stylist. He builds sculptures out of roots, leaves, and petals... and then eats them. But artistic serenity is not possible in the dangerous forest. The melancholy insect is constantly faced with cockroach-eating lizards, ocelots, and worse, food-stealing monkeys: "'Another masterpiece--ruined!' Crickwing panted. 'I'm starving and my wing aches. I don't know if I can take this much longer.'"
Bemoaning his fate as a "mere exoskeleton," Crickwing wakes up with thoughts of vengeance. As he watches thousands of leaf-cutting ants busy at work, he wonders, "Why isn't anyone bothering these little twerps?" He sticks his spiny leg out to trip one of them, and delights in taunting them further. Of course, the ants don't take this well. They swarm him, drag him into the dark corridors of their anthill, and bury him up to his neck--all the while whispering about how his mother must be heartbroken to have produced such an awful menace. Just as they are about to fork him over as their annual peace offering to the army ants, they have a crisis of conscience. "Nobody deserves that, not even this big bully," says one of the ants, and, risking the wrath of their queen, they release him and flee. Now it's Crickwing's turn to have a conscience. He races after the leafcutters with his creative plan to keep the warring army ants at bay. The story ends in a festive explosion of flower confetti, and a valuable lesson in compassion. The concluding "Cockroach Notes" and "Ant Notes" crawl with fascinating facts about our six-legged friends. (Ages 5 to 8) --Karin Snelson
Book Description
Crickwing never set out to be a bully. All he wants is to create his art in peace. But it's not easy being different--a cockroach with a cricked wing and a flair for sculpture is a ready target for the bigger creatures in the forest. Crickwing just wants to even the score, and leafcutter ants are so easy to pick on. . . .Big mistake. Nobody angers the leafcutter queen and gets away with it.
In this epic adventure beneath the foliage, Crickwing and the leafcutter ants go head-to-head. Then a swarm of ferocious army ants threatens, and suddenly everyone is in danger. Crickwing has to do something, but what? He's an artist, not a fighter. What the leafcutters need is a hero. Or, maybe, a cockroach with a really clever idea. . . .
Customer Reviews:
Juneau 2nd Grader.......2007-03-21
Crickwing is a very artistic beetle. Everyone calls him that because his wing got twisted in a fight with a frog. If you get mad easily, Crickwing knows how you feel.
When the army ants attack, Crickwing uses his artistic talent to scare them away. If you like bugs, this book is for you.
crafty cockroach makes friends.......2007-01-12
Important life lessons about how a person with mobility challenges or other physical challenges might feel marginalized and try to find a special niche in life. Crickwing uses his crafting abilities to save the day. A lovely, deep story about an ancient insect. Perhaps a little too mature for 6 year olds, but they love the story and beautiful illustrations. I expect the "lessons" to sink in over many readings. Janell Cannon is truly gifted.
I WAS GLAD I PURCHASED THIS ONE!.......2006-11-15
This is a wonderfully told story concerning being a bully. The art work is absolutely the best and is quite eye catching. I have found this book quite useful is talking to children about being a bully and being bullied. The author is qutie on the mark, and while showing a dry humor, certainly gets the seriousness of the situation across in a very good lesson. The detailed illustrations would all be able to stand a lone a works of art. I could recommend this one for primary school counsellors and parents who may have a child with this particular problem. Recommend this one highly.
loveable roach?.......2005-06-03
The story is about a cockroach that has a crocked wing and is always being picked on. To keep his mind off his problems he always makes beautiful art work out of his food. He decides to pick on things smaller than him after a bit. He picks on the ants. When the ants are in trouble he decides to help them out in a neat way!
What did you like or not like about the book?
The books main character is a cockroach. I really don't like roaches at all but the book portrays this roach as lovable and sympathetic.
The book is marvelous. It is extremely readable for young (3 - 6) year olds, and the artwork is beautiful, with vivid colors and expressive characters. Best of all, the story line is appropriate, with a message that is easily understood.
Controlling emotions.......2004-03-05
Crickwing is a cockroach who is grumpy because a toad have him a crooked wing and it aches. Crickwing likes to play with his food before eating it, but several nights in a row, his meal is stolen from him by large critters like lizards or monkeys before he gets a chance to dig in. Crickwing vents his frustration by torturing leaf cutter ants, but he gets in deep trouble, finding himself elected by the leaf cutter ants as the peace offering for the army ants. The story has a number of points that some kids, especially young ones, may find rather scary. But other kids may enjoy the tension. At the end of the story are some feature articles that provide more factual information about cockroaches and ants. The book has about 1600 words.
Book Description
FINALLY, THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM BUG!
Through a bizarre disaster (nothing unusual for our boy blunder), Wally accidentally fries the circuits of Ol' Betsy, his laptop computer.
Suddenly, whatever he types turns into reality. . . Including Wally becoming the city's Chief of Police, and finally the Governor of the state. It's 11:59, New Year's Eve, when our hero tries retyping the truth into his computer - a commendable effort which, unfortunately, manages to short out every computer in the world! By midnight, the entire universe has credited Wally's mishap to the MILLENNIUM BUG! Panic, chaos and hilarity start the new century, thanks to our beloved Wally.
Customer Reviews:
Good Christian Message, a bit out-dated?.......2001-09-18
As a little shaver, I never especially enjoyed this type of light, comical book. Yes, I was a bit of a nerd, even back then. So, now that I'm a 24-year-old nerd, why did I decide to read a book intended for 4th graders? 1) because I teach fifth and sixth grade now and the reading level of the book wasn't that far off. Why not see what the kids are reading these days? 2) because it was sitting on the desk of the former 4th grade teacher's classroom where I eat my lunch and I was bored. So, why not read it.
The book really wasn't that bad considering it was written for someone 14 years younger than me. The hero of this line of books, Wally McDoogle, is a klutz and, quite often, he trips or stumbles, etc. setting off a chain of events culminating in some great disaster. Bill Myers is very talented when it comes to explaining in a believable way (to the ten-year-old mind) how sneezing can humorously result in a destroyed room and a computer that has a unique glich--whatever is typed into the computer becomes reality.
Myers also inserts a moral, Christian message in this and every other of the Wally McDoogle books, making it a fun read and assisting in character education. It's nice to see the redeeming, Christian social value of the book. Myers also develops some humorous moments. My personal favorite, although I'm not sure if it's intended, is when Myers shamelessly plugged another book in the Wally McDoogle series into the narrative of this book.
While the idea of a compuer that creates reality is an excellent idea, I'm not sure that 4th graders of 2001 would appreciate the importance of the computer bug being a Millennium Bug. I really doubt that he or she would even understand the now-historical term. Aside from that, the book is pretty entertaining. If I were to buy one of Myers's books of the Wally McDoogle line for a youngster, I'm not sure I would pick the Millennium Bug one, but would look to others. All-in-all, I would probably recommend to a kid, a different book, but would not be disappointed at all if the kid chose to read this book.
My Life As a Mixed-Up Millennium Bug, by Bill Myers.......2000-06-17
In this hilarious book, salt water gets spilled on 'Ol Betsy (Wally's computer). Then everything he writes about on his computer really happens! Choas insues and Wally learns that he should never cheat because it could cause serious problems!
Amazon.com
"Archy and his racy pal Mehitabel are timeless," noted E.B. White in his essay on Don Marquis and his famous creations. The undimmed enthusiasm of several generations of fans (including yrs. truly) -- who every year buy thousands of copies of Marquis' earlier collections -- testifies to their appeal. A whimsical and sophisticated sage, archy the cockroach entertains readers with iconclastic observations on pretensions, politics, and our place in the cosmos. This collection of long-lost pages from archy's writings is funny yet profound.
Book Description
"Archy and his racy pal Mehitabel are timeless," noted E. B. White in his essay on Don Marquis and his famous creations, and the undimmed enthusiasm of several generations of fans -- who every year buy thousands of copies of Marquis' earlier collections -- testifies to their appeal. A whimsical and sophisticated sage, archy the cockroach entertained readers with iconoclastic observations on pretensions, politics, and our place in the cosmos during Marquis' career as a New York newspaper columnist in the 1920s and 30s.
Allegedly tapping out stories at night by leaping from key to key on Marquis' typewriter, archy couldn't quite manage the shift key for capital letters. Although his tales appeared in lower case, his views achieved a level grand enough to solidify Marquis' reputation as an American humorist in the tradition of Mark Twain, Joel Chandler Harris, and Ring Lardner. archyology brings together selected "lost" tales that were literally rescued from oblivion by Jeff Adams, who found them among papers stored in a steamer trunk since Marquis' death.
And so archy emerges from his long silence. Whether reporting on characters like emmet the ghost, sailing to Paris to visit the insects of Europe, being trapped for days in a New York subway train, or hanging out in a Long Island orchard enjoying fermented cherries, archy is always both provocative and inimitable. With illustrations by Ed Frascino, a New Yorker regular, this collection reintroduces a delightful cast of characters who reconfirm archy's view of the world: "the only way to live with it is to laugh at it."
Customer Reviews:
Archyology the long lost tales of archy and mehitable.......2005-08-06
These are some of the most wonderful humorous writings ever. I first encountered them back in the '40s (1940 that is). Even copied them on an old manual typewriter (like Archy used). Have had the copies for over fifty years. It's great to get them in a book (my pages had become yellowed and crinkley). I hope to get the other books to go with these. For fun and entertainment and a good chuckle, you can't go wrong with "archy and mehitalbe"
Nearly Lost Art.......2004-03-20
Of course there's a value in teaching Emily Dickinson to our children. And no one would debate that every college student should immerse themselves in the likes of T.S., Joyce and Williams. But why are teachers missing out on such a classic collection of incredible poesy? wotthehell? Give it a read and see if you don't immediately take a copy to your next PTA meeting.
archy and mehitabel are as unique as hamlet!.......1998-07-18
picture two characters who inhabit the newsroom of a daily newspaper only in the night hours in the 1920s and 30s. a cat who believes and acts as if she s the reincarnation of cleopatra and a cockroach who writes his boss - that s in quotes - who s a reporter on the paper. but writing comes so hard that it is, well n-o-t what is written in the - booklist - review in amazon s internet review. i quote from the review - the cockroach, archy, couldn t hold down shift and hit another key. - wronggggg.,.,., i quote from don marquis s description - he did not see us, and we watched him. he would climb painfully upon the framework of the machine and cast himself with all his force upon a key, head downward, and his weight and the impact of the blow were just sufficient to operate the machine, one slow letter after another. he could not operate the capital letters... - can t you just cry with pain as you picture archy, or rathe! ! r, don marquis, writing his material, any and all material , for us. and suggesting that many writers must suffer as did archy to give us their thoughts, their beliefs, their observations, their opinions, their joys, their sufferings.... b-u-y- t-h-e b-o-o-k .,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,., - imagine caps, or parentheses - i can't do it, you see....
Book Description
For ten years, The Onion A.V. Club—the entertainment section of the award-winning humor publication The Onion—has been interviewing entertainers and storytellers of every style and stripe. But it has always placed an emphasis on those with fascinating, hard-won careers, from amiable retirees and passionate visionaries to bitter, jilted, eternally warring cranks. Collecting dozens of The Onion A.V. Club’s most entertaining and candid interviews, The Tenacity Of The Cockroach offers a pop-cultural tour unlike any other.
The Onion A.V.
Customer Reviews:
Interviews beat any others out there.......2004-10-02
I've long thought that the Onion AV Club's "interviews" section was a premier example of smart, funny, revealing interviews from all sorts of showbiz folks, from the really famous to the relatively obscure. I have seen this book around for ever, I'd read the Conan and Andy Richter interviews in book stores, but I finally picked it up a week ago. Let me tell you, it's worth whatever you pay for it.
The book contains glimpses into the lives of various types of entertainers, from the well-know to the washed-up. I could go on about various aspects of each interview, but I think I'll just cut to the chase and list the ones that really stuck with me:
Rick James talking about his hardships
Conan O'Brien describing the pitfalls of a studio audience
Robert Forster explaining his philosophy of life
Merle Haggard regretting "Okie From Muskogee" being used by the far-right
Elvira discussing Coors' decision to drop her in favor of Pamela Lee
Mr. T going on and on (I could just hear him saying all this from reading it)
The commentaries range from the bitter (Harlan Ellison is a trip) to the resigned (The Unknown Comic), but the real bonus is the nuggets of truth to be gleaned from each interview. The fact that all the performers included stuck to their artistic guns, even in the face of changing cultural trends, is a good lesson for any aspiring entertainers. The messge is "be true to yourself, and you will achieve your goals sooner or later."
I think the ratio of good interviews outweighs the bad ones, and the four or five seperate interviews with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross certainly caught my eye after just recently picking up the "Mr. Show Complete First and Second Season" DVD.
The Onion AV Club, for my money, publishes the best interviews in the field of entertainment, and this is a gold-standard collection of some of the best.
You Won't Tenacity To Read This GREAT Book.......2004-06-17
This is a MUST motivational book for ANYONE. It doesn't matter what you do for a living -- you're going to read in this zippy book of interviews a bit about how people (mostly writers and entertainers) went from point A to point Z...and how they stuck to their guns in doing it no matter what.
Stylistically, there not a thing to dislike about this collection. The interviews are from The Onion A.V Club (entertainment section) and cross generational lines. Everyone from cultural (and it is weird) icons such as Bob Barker, Henry Rollins, Harlan Ellison (the guy's charisma comes across with every word he spits out), Mr. T., Roger Corman, David Lee Roth, Conan O'Brian and many others.
There isn't a single solitary misfire in this collection and the subjects are so diverse there is something for everyone and every age group.
Two profiles stayed with me for days. One was the interview/profile of 1950s-1960s satirist Tom Lehrer, who dabbled in his art, wrote a limited number of classic pieces (available in a great Rhino collection here on Amazon), then walked away from his satire...and has absolutely no desire to perform ever again. And the other was The Unknown Comic, who performed with a bag over his head (something some known comics might consider doing, given their acts). His anecdote of an elderly and furious Frank Sinatra threatening him for poking fun at him -- then nearly having a stoke as he wouldn't believe it was THE REAL The Chairman of the Board -- is a show business classic. (It was only when he got a phone call out of the blue from Milton Berle that he knew it was for real; and he says he later learned that Sinatra was looking for someone to teach him a painful physical lesson).
It's like having these folks sit in your living room, shed their famous identities, share a bit about themselves, and give you some valuable lessons on the importance of sticking to your goals (long range or quickly improvised ones) -- and to your own PERSONAL ART, whatever it may be. If I could give it 10 stars, I would...Well, I'll stick to it: 10 STARS.
Original but not much depth.......2003-09-02
This is a quick, easy read. The choice of subjects makes it work --- the people at the Onion went after the entertainers on the fringes, people whose careers have hit the ceiling. You get to hear about Elvira at conventions, the Unknown Comic living a normal life raising his daughter, and Roger Corman summing up an impressive career.
Then there are the bad interviews. No one needs to interview Harlan Ellison, for example. He rants a lot and says nothing. Henry Rollins promotes his ego over his work. And who is Quentin Crisp, anyway?
This would be a five-star book if some of the bad interviews were cut --- preferably replaced with more interesting people. The book can also be faulted for not digging very deep into the lives of these people. Too many interviews read like a fan's meeting with his idol, asking relatively smart questions, but not bothering to ask anything that might upset the subject.
But it's worth a read. You could do worse than find out what's on the mind of Pen & Teller, Alice Cooper, and Ray Bradbury.
like being at a cocktail party full of interesting people.......2003-06-23
I wasn't entirely certain if I would like this book. Could a collection of interviews, more than a few of which I've read before, really be all that interesting? A few interviews into the book, and I knew that the answer was yes.
Reading this book is like being at a cocktail party full of interesting people. Some of them are interesting for what they have done, some are interesting for what they have learned, some are interesting for how they have evolved and changed, and some are interesting because they're such flaming jerks. And like a cocktail party that you attend with a friend who provides running commentary on the people you meet, "Weird Al" Yankovich provides sidebars to several of the interviews with his impressions of and experiences with the interviewee. Also like a cocktail party, there is a recurring theme of someone whose story to which you keep on returning to hear where it has progressed: the comic geniuses behind the HBO sketch comedy show "Mr Show" provide five separate interviews through the course of their show's tenure on HBO.
My favourite interviews were those with Henry Rollins (whose interview provides the title for the collection), Berkeley Breathed, Joan Jett, David Lee Roth, both halves of Penn and Teller, KRS-One, and Alice Cooper. I could name my least favourite interviews, but these interviews were not least favourite because of the interview itself. Rather, they were not as interesting because the subject turned out to be a flmaing jerk, but not enough of a jerk to be funny.
This is an interesting roadtrip through pop culture. I didn't read it all in one setting, but rather between other things. It's not deep or meaningful (although the book does close out with a collection of interviews with several people who had positive messages), but it is entertaining and often hilarious.
Great fun.......2003-03-23
A very worthwhile collection, with something to entertain and inform in nearly every interview. As the title says, the subjects are mostly entertainers who've maintained their popularity over some duration without ever going totally mainstream: Tom Lehrer, Berkeley Breathed, Dr. Demento, Henry Rollins, Harlan Ellison, KRS-One, etc. There are few exceptions: what is cultural blip Vanilla Ice doing here? Some of the interviews interested me especially, for various reasons. Ian MacKaye proves himself to be a man of deep intelligence, which I already knew, but more than that: he possesses a strong, pragmatic view of the world. Rather than railing (rather short-sightedly) at the evils of record companies, as several of the subjects in this book do, for example, he sees that they exist to make a rpofit, and those musicians who wish to make their own profit by signing onto them shouldn't be surprised when they're used as dollar-generating tools rather than as artists. As he says, he doesn't want to destroy the world, just create his own little world that can co-exist within the larger system. Andrew WK, whom I envisaged as some head-thrashing meathead based on his music (and song titles), turns out to be an introspective young man, honest and full of enthusiasm for all life has to offer. He's a bit like Brian Wilson: meticulous, fragile, but wanting to bring joy to people with music. Who knew? KRS-One also turns in a surprising interview, with some rather unusual comments about the sate of hip-hop culture and how the black population is hurting it. And there's David Lee Roth, whose interview is a splendid olio of self-aggrandizing, stream of (semi-)consciousness, disjointed logic, and outright nonsense. The man's brain must be fried. But all the subjects have something of value to impart (except perhaps Russ Meyer, whose answer to every single question involves his need for well-endowed women), even if a streak of the curmudgeon runs through most of them. Good fun.
Amazon.com
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the humorist Don Marquis charmed New Yorkers with his whimsical newspaper column, which often featured the prose stylings of an opinionated cockroach named Archy. This final collection of Marquis's columns was edited by Jeff Adams, who found these gems in a long-lost trunk of the journalist's papers. Parts of that archive have already been published in the 1996 volume, Archyology: The Long Lost Tales of Archy and Mehitabel. Fans of Don Marquis, light verse, and talking vermin are likely to enjoy this book.
Archy writes by hurling himself headfirst toward the keys of a typewriter. In "archy comes out for simplified spelling," the little fellow recommends changes in standard English spelling and describes the physical hardships of his writing style:
in the small of my back theres a kink
and the rapid sukseshin of shocks
is putting my chin on the blink
In other columns, Archy makes wry observations about politics and American society. When he visits Washington, D.C., he worries that he might get tacked onto a piece of legislation because it seems like everything is being added to that particular bill. On another occasion, he gets caught up in a ticker-tape parade and is tossed around the streets of New York for two full hours.
The volume also contains several installments of The Great False Teeth Mystery, a serial novel about the international adventures of Archy and a bejeweled set of dentures. This picaresque parodies the conventions of serials but is less entertaining than Marquis's other work. Marquis is at his best when his sidekick Archy is in charge of the typewriter, giving us all a bug's-eye view of the universe. --Jill Marquis
Book Description
In this second and final volume "composed" by archy, the literary cockroach, the wonderfully whimsical insect and his fractious feline friend, mehitabel, engage in misadventures large and small and comment with quirky accuracy on the common state of humanity. Previously unpublished in book form and literally recovered from a steamer trunk by editor Jeff Adams, these stories are the product of Don Marquis, a New York columnist and raconteur who was one of America's most popular humorists during the early twentieth century. archy supposedly worked at Marquis's newsroom typewriter at night, diving headfirst onto individual keys to tap out columns; unable to use the shift key, of course, Archy settled for lower-case letters and dispensed with punctuation entirely.
Ungrammatical as they may be, Archy's wry insights are a true delight, for, as he puts it, "one advantage of being a cockroach is that i see things from the under side." From that unique perspective we follow the continuing saga of archy, the Cockroach Detective, a spoof on the gumshoe genre in which the six-legged private eye encounters a raja, his chorus-girl harem, Bolshevist twins, an Egyptologist, seven sister manicurists, and a set of bejeweled false teeth. In other episodes archy saves the US fleet from a German U-boat attack, muses with a spider about humanity's inhumanity to insects, stows away on a freighter to London, and climbs to the top of the Washington Monument.
In the Capitol building itself, archy says, "there is no attention paid to me because there are so many other insects around it gives you a great idea of the american people when you see some of the things they elect." The Ku Klux Klan, he observes elsewhere, "is going strong and the national emblem will soon be the great american kleagle." Meanwhile, mehitabel, who claims to be a reincarnation of Cleopatra, offers to hire hit-cats to clean up City Hall, not of rats but of reporters. Accompanied by the inspired drawings of cartoonist Ed Frascino, these new archy tales are, Adams writes, "classic American humor, as vivid and amusing today as they were decades ago."
Book Description
La Cucaracha Martina doesn't like life in the big city. The loud city sounds hurt her tiny ears and keep her awake at night. Determined to find the source of the one beautiful noise she has heard only a few times, Martina takes to the town and creates a big stir. Splendidly shaped and colorful creatures come, one by one, to catch a glimpse of this ravishing roach. Soon, marriage proposals fly and love is in the air. Who will win the heart of this extraordinary cucarachita?
Customer Reviews:
A fun story to read over and over.......2003-10-21
I am becoming a big fan of this storywriter/illustrator. His illustrations are always fun, colorful and almost jump off the page. My 2 year old loves seeing all the different animals and making their sounds/noises throughout this book while waiting for Martina to find the grand finale "beautiful noise". With it's big pages and easy to read large print, this book is still at the top of the pile for our daily reading and enjoyment.
This cucaracha is simply magnifica!.......2002-07-04
This is a classic book. My daughter is 3 and she just loves la cucharacha Martina's quest for the "beautiful noise." It helps that my husband is an entomologist - the two of them get a big kick out of this book. Spanish is woven into the book, in the signs and in names, but you don't need to speak Spanish to read and enjoy the book. The pictures are beautiful, fascinating to children. All around, a family favorite for us!
La Cucaracha Martina is a wonderfully funny book for kids!.......1998-10-03
This book was wonderful! Although written for younger children older children and adults will enjoy it too. The illustrations are crisp, bright and whimsical. The story of a beautiful cockroach is based on a Caribbean Folktale. It is a fun read and a great book to share with others. The book has lots of secrets in the language. Look for the meaning to the many spanish signs and symbols located throughout the book. I shared this with my college classmates, my adolescent children and younger children as well. They all enjoyed the story and were equally intrigued by the illustrations.
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- The Ant and the Elephant: Leadership For the Self
- The Audubon Society Book of Insects
- The Autobiography of a Super Tramp (Oxford Paperbacks)
- The Black Lizard Jim Thompson: After Dark My Sweet, The Alcoholics, The Criminal, Cropper's Cabin, The Getaway, The Grifters, A Hell of a Woman, Nothing More Than Murder, Pop. 1280, Recoil, Savage Night, A Swell-Looking Babe and Wild Town (13 books)
- The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
- The Complete Book of Knots
- The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
- The Economic Value of Water (RFF Press)
- The erotic ocean;: A handbook for beachcombers and marine naturalists
- The Genus Iris
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Archyology : The Long Lost Tales of Archy and Mehitabel
Archy and Mehitabel
The Annotated Pride and Prejudice
Archyology II : (The Final Dig) : The Long Lost Tales of Archy and Mehitabel
Archy And Mehitabel: Carnival of the Animals
