The New YorkerThe Girl Who Fixed the Umlautverified_publisherThe New Yorker - Nora Ephron"'I can’t really go on without an umlaut,' Blomkvist said. 'We’re in Sweden.'” (Humor from the archive.) There was a tap at the door at five in the morning. She woke up. Shit. Now what? She’d fallen asleep with her Palm Tungsten T3 in her hand. It would take only a moment to smash it against the wall …
The New YorkerThe Very Comical Lament of Pyramus and Thisbeverified_publisherThe New Yorker - Susan Sontag“THISBE: You see? Even you can feel rueful. An American artist warned me last year, You’ll miss this wall.” (Humor from the archive.) (An Interlude)WALL: Thus have I, Wall, my part dischargèd so;And being done, thus Wall away doth go.—“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Act V Scene 1. THISBE: It’s not here …
The New YorkerLGA—ORDverified_publisherThe New Yorker - Ian FrazierThe playwright Samuel Beckett is your flight captain in this Shouts & Murmurs piece by Ian Frazier, from 1980. Then, Beckett decided to become a commercial pilot. . . . “I think the next little bit of excitement is flying,” he wrote to McGreevy. “I hope I am not too old to take it up seriously nor …
The New YorkerAcross the Street and Into the Grillverified_publisherThe New Yorker - E. B. White“This is my last and best and true and only meal, thought Mr. Pirnie.” (Humor from the archive.) This is my last and best and true and only meal, thought Mr. Pirnie as he descended at noon and swung east on the beat-up sidewalk of Forty-fifth Street. Just ahead of him was the girl from the reception …
The New YorkerThe American Literary Sceneverified_publisherThe New Yorker - James Thurber“Some American writers who have known each other for years have never met in the daytime or when both were sober.” (Humor from the archive.) I have but now returned to England, and to my tranquil pen, after spending six interesting, rather, but scarcely restful weeks in America. It had been my …
The New YorkerWhy We Laugh—or Do We?verified_publisherThe New Yorker - Robert Benchley“All laughter is merely a compensatory reflex to take the place of sneezing.” (Humor from the archive.) In order to laugh at something, it is necessary (1) to know what you are laughing at, (2) to know why you are laughing, (3) to ask some people why they think you are laughing, (4) to jot down a few …
