Whenever you need an amusing story to hold attention, drive home a point in speech making to enliven conversation, or to read just for fun, the more than 4,100 peppery, bubbling stories in this volume will satisfy every demand. All are arranged alphabetically under subject. The index and cross-index makes it possible to locate the right story quickly. The range of this volume is far and wide. The stories are about people in all walks of life. All of them are wholesome and clean. And what is more, you will want to remember and retell these stories. Drawn from the vagaries, the foibles, and the peculiarities of human nature, they provide countless chuckles from many different locales. The ENCYCLOPEDIA of WIT, HUMOR and WISDOM is indispensable for public speakers, toastmasters, lawyers, ministers, educators, writers, salesmen, and those who love a good laugh.

What do you call 600 lawyers at the bottom of the sea? Marc Galanter calls it an opportunity to investigate the meanings of a rich and time-honored genre of American humor: lawyer jokes. Lowering the Bar analyzes hundreds of jokes from Mark Twain classics to contemporary anecdotes about Dan Quayle, Johnnie Cochran, and Kenneth Starr. Drawing on representations of law and lawyers in the mass media, political discourse, and public opinion surveys, Galanter finds that the increasing reliance on law has coexisted uneasily with anxiety about the “legalization” of society. Informative and always entertaining, his book explores the tensions between Americans’ deep-seated belief in the law and their ambivalence about lawyers.

In the Dutch countryside the war seems far away. For most people, at least. But not for Ed, a Jew in Nazi-occupied Holland trying to find some safe sanctuary. Compelled to go into hiding in the rural province of Zeeland, he is taken in by a seemingly benevolent family of farmers. But, as Ed comes to realize, the Van 't Westeindes are not what they seem. Camiel, the son of the house, is still in mourning for his best friend, a German soldier who committed suicide the year before. And Camiel's fiery, unstable sister Mariete begins to nurse a growing unrequited passion for their young guest, just as Ed realizes his own attraction to Camiel. As time goes by, Ed is drawn into the domestic intrigues around him, and the farmhouse that had begun as his refuge slowly becomes his prison.

Heavenly Hoots is Christianity at its funniest! Every anecdote in this book has a distinct truthfulness about it and is a mini-sermon in itself. People should recognize Christians by the smiles on their faces and the chuckle in their hearts because they believe, "Laughter is the Best Medicine."

Life's a Gas is a collection of over 1,000 true, funny happenings. You won't believe how people trip over their own tongues and take one step forward while taking two steps back and not even know it.

Watch Your Step! is a collection of humorous farm anecdotes taken, with permission, from books originally compiled by Leewin B. Williams the first half of the 20th Century. It's amazing how much truth can be distilled from dated humor. You either recognize the people or, in some instances, you recognize yourself.

STRIKING ILLUSTRATIONS IN CHRISTIANITY, a collection of down to earth thoughts from a long time ago. Even though they were excerpted from books our great-grandparents read, they hold the same values. The Golden Rule never changes.