The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners contains the ultimate, most comprehensive compendium of humor ever compiled. From shaggy-dog stories to jokes for roasts and toasts, virtually every form of verbal humor on a whole raft of topics is represented in this not totally politically correct—but always diverting—collection of ticklers and howlers for any occasion. Humorous quotations, epigrams and epitaphs, limericks, and puns also appear among the volume's thousands of entries categorized by topic. This format makes the book an easily accessible as well as invaluable companion to speechmakers for events great and small—meeting the needs of both the maiden aunt looking for a wholesome joke to relate at a golden wedding anniversary and the best man who needs a blue one for the bachelor party. Providing more than 10,000 choices, this mammoth book even offers would-be wolves on the prowl pick-up lines—at the same time that it offers some snappy comebacks and a few ribald ripostes for the reluctant or disinterested prey.

In a collection of stories, quips, and quotes that only Barbara Johnson could conceive, readers will laugh at the zany, unforgettable surprises of being a mother. Mothers-they've seen it all-the good, the bad, and the hilarious. And now they're talking about it. Best-selling author, speaker, and all-around funny lady, Barbara Johnson continues her tradition of serious hilarity with a humorous look at the joys of motherhood. A collection of stories, quotes, and anecdotes that help moms forget the stress and frustration of unmade beds and a fast-food lifestyle, Humor Me, I'm Your Mother is the perfect book that will soon have them giggling, chuckling, and laughing out loud.

This book claims that a tragicomic outlook—the kind that echoes in black and gallows humour and the "laughter through tears" of Jewish humour—is the most effective way to manage what Freud called the "harshness" of everyday life.

In this lively gambol through the history of quotations and quotation books, Gary Saul Morson traces our enduring fascination with the words of others. Ranging from the remote past to the present, he explores the formation, development, and significance of quotations, while exploring the "verbal museums" in which they have been collected and displayed--commonplace books, treasuries, and anthologies. In his trademark clear, witty, and provocative style, Morson invites readers to share his delight in the shortest literary genre. The author defines what makes a quote quotable, as well as the (unexpected) differences between quotation and misquotation. He describes how quotations form, transform, and may eventually become idioms. How much of language itself is the residue of former quotations? Weaving in hundreds of intriguing quotations, common and unusual, Morson explores how the words of others constitute essential elements in the formation of a culture and of the self within that culture. In so doing, he provides a demonstration of that very process, captured in the pages of this extraordinary new book.

The book contains essays in honor of Victor Raskin. The contributions are all directly related to some of the major areas of work in which Raskin's scholarship has spanned for decades. The obvious connecting idea is the encyclopedic script-based foundation of lexical meaning, which informs his pioneering work in semantics in the 1970s and 1980s. The first part of the book collects articles directly concerned with script-based semantics, which examine both the theoretical and methodological premises of the idea and its applications. Script-based semantics is the foundation of both Raskin's ground-breaking work in humor research (addressed by the articles in part 2) and in Ontological semantics (addressed in part 3), the most recent development of script-based semantics. The fourth part is dedicated to a less-known, but equally important, strand of Raskin's research, the applications of linguistics to other fields, including writing, lexicography, and professional applications (e,g., tourism). Overall, the book provides and up-to-date, in-depth discussion of an influential strand of the discussion on semantics and its most recent developments and influence on other seemingly unrelated fields, such as Cognitive Linguistics.

"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed," Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, "nothing will be impossible for you." That sounds good, but does it work in a world where seeds are genetically altered by an impatient few and hard to come by for countless others? In a world where the gulf between the very rich and the profoundly poor is constantly growing, can a mustard-seed faith make any difference? And can such a little bit of faith be sustained in a world whose future is so uncertain on so many fronts? Tom Sine says yes, and he has the audacity to try to prove it in his latest book. In The New Conspirators Tom surveys the landscape of creative Christianity, where streams of renewal are flowing freely from diverse sources: The emerging church Contemporary monastic movements The missional church The mosaic movement Individuals and communities of faith are coalescing in, and drawing energy from, these four streams to retrofit the church as it leads, serves and gives witness to the kingdom of God in the turbulent times facing us. Read the book and you'll want to-and be prepared to-join God's conspiracy to create a better future.

We all have times when we feel trapped by life. A world of dysfunction seems to hem us in on every side as our hearts yearn for horizons that seem just beyond our grasp. We search for pathways forward we just can’t seem to find. But, as Derek Webster demonstrates, God wants to lead us to health. How do we do that? Viewed through the lens of the familiar Old Testament Bible story of Joseph, Your Mess, God's Masterpiece shows us a way to journey from trapped to triumphant living. This book will help you move from the mess you’re stuck in, to become the masterpiece God longs for you to be.