Zingers, Quips, & One Liners: Mini-Review

(*The Mammoth Book of) Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners has--according to my edition--over 8,000 gems of wit wisdom. It comes complete with quotes from everyone from Oscar Wilde to Lenny Bruce from Mae West to Margaret Cho and Roseanne Barr. The key word from the title, I believe, is zingers. If you're not expecting the outrageous and pointed comment, then this collection is not for you. There is a quote that says, "A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone." (Jo Godwin) I would say that this is true of this book of quotes as well. 

For the most part, I enjoyed this collection. Overall, very amusing--one quibble: there is a fair smattering of more modern celebrities. In general, I have no problem with this (despite my love for more vintage things-books, movies, TV shows, etc), but I do have a problem with quotations being ascribed to more recent celebrities when I know full well that the comments were around well before the advent of Madonna or Jerry Seinfeld. It would be nice if the editor Geoff Tibballs had credited the earliest reference rather than his favorite actor/comedian/what-have-you. ★★★


*There are so many "Mammoth Book of" books out there that I am not counting that as part of the title for any of my challenges.


Favorites:
[on murder] Very stupid to kill the servants: now we don't even know where to find the marmalade. {Emily Brent (Dame Judith Anderson) in And Then There Were None}

Murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner. {Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray}

Experts agree that the best type of computer for your individual needs is one that comes on the market about two days after  you actually purchase some other computer. {Dave Barry}

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff. {Frank Zappa}

If an article is attractive, or useful, or inexpensive, they'll stop making it tomorrow; if it's all three, they stopped making it yesterday. {Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook}

Sometimes opportunity knocks, but most of the time it sneaks up and then quietly steals away. {Doug Larson}

Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy. {H. L. Mencken, Chrestomathy}

A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing. One that sounds good, and a real one. {J. Pierpont Morgan}