good times

Celebrities Playing Table Tennis via the Presurfer

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Comments: good times

Ach, that Hillary Clinton rocks whatever she plays ;-?
Posted by Jozef Imrich at June 13, 2005 12:25 AM

You Really Got Me.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at June 13, 2005 11:55 AM

End of the season...

(well - the Table in the carport has been idle of late, alas)
Posted by boynton at June 13, 2005 01:35 PM

A lonely life?
Posted by at June 13, 2005 03:24 PM

Is that by the Kinks?
Posted by boynton at June 13, 2005 04:01 PM

No its by the desperates !
Posted by at June 13, 2005 05:08 PM

My personal favourites have to be the Governator (pic3) playing with stupidly oversized paddle ["der ball - it iz tuu small for my laser-guided tracking system"], and Donnie Osmond playing with authentic chinese grip. That guy is a pro.
Posted by Russell Allen at June 13, 2005 07:05 PM

Yes, Donnie sets the standard. That's the level of skill one expects around the Carport table here.

I wanted to include: Mr Ed.
Ginger Rogers (pic 1)

and personal favourite: Cesar Romero.
(not just for the Table Tennis, but
for the Wall Feature - which reminds me of the ornamental plant in "Mon Oncle". A feature that is very competitive in the composition, anyway)
Posted by boynton at June 13, 2005 07:44 PM

Its Ray and Dave Davies!
Posted by Brownie at June 14, 2005 10:41 AM

I like Cesar's pic too because of the vigour in his smash. I love seeing celebs be ultra-competitive in seemingly meaningless events. It's a continuation of the 'who's-got-the-biggest trailer' comp that separates the men from the boys.
Posted by Russell Allen at June 14, 2005 12:02 PM

Yep. I chose the Kinks over the Beatles. It's a great shot.

Indeed Russell - but 'seemingly' is right - there's nothing meaningless about... Ping-pong ;)
Posted by boynton at June 14, 2005 02:03 PM

The Village Green Table Preservation Society?
Posted by Nabakov at June 14, 2005 08:01 PM

what more can we do
Posted by boynton at June 14, 2005 08:26 PM

l .

. l

l .

. l

*smash* l .

Your shot.
Posted by Nabakov at June 14, 2005 09:06 PM

. l

l .

*smash*
Posted by boynton at June 14, 2005 09:16 PM

. . . . . . . . .
. . . .....
.. .
. .

"It's rolled under there. Bugger! I can't reach. Can you?"
Posted by Nabakov at June 14, 2005 09:36 PM

(____________)

I think it's rolled under the canoe. Can you?
_____________
( .


(like all of the content on this blog - a true story, natch - as is my next serve)


*Smash*......


Posted by boynton at June 14, 2005 09:47 PM

Well then, if we've run out of ping pong balls, let's try a ....golf ball.

(Also a true story. But with an unhappy ending - "patio, younger brother, minor scalp wound, noisy recriminations, etc, etc".)

Fuck it. Cocktail time! Pass the Pimms for a sundowner. And put on "Waterloo Sunset" while yer up.

Quite out of breath there for a while. Chin chin!
Posted by Nabakov at June 14, 2005 09:56 PM

I keep my golfballs in a box by the Table tennis table. True. (10 years of collecting Studley Park found objects while walking hounds.) One night there was a terrible rumbling in the carport...golf balls all took off one by one, rolling out to the garden.

I never thought of playing Ex-treme Table tennis with them at all. Until now.

Kinks 'Greatest Hits'. cheers.
Posted by boynton at June 14, 2005 10:06 PM

"...while walking hounds"

Golfhounds? Bred to mush along wheeled golfbags, hand you your nine iron at a fingerclick, point yer ball in the ruff!, ruff!, sneakily piss on the others' balls - and trained not to do what comes naturally in sandtraps?

Amazed no one had seriously thought of this before. Cheap, hand-trained, tireless and much more versatile four-legged caddies, proudly sporting doggie tartan warms from the St Andrews' gift shop.

And fed the biltong tees at the end of each round.
Posted by Nabakov at June 14, 2005 11:38 PM

Yes...

http://wesleyprints.com/wholesalegallery/golf/teetime.html

A ruff aproximation of my canine team had we ever strayed on to the course to play.

Though it seems that llamas are the four-legged caddy of choice - of course this might be one of those google myths, the same bit of text doing the rounds of the google bunker?

(A fair proportion of the golf balls i my collection were indeed collected very discreetly by the Jack Russell terrier on our rounds.)
Posted by boynton at June 15, 2005 12:20 AM

Thank you for the Daze.
Posted by Tony.T at June 16, 2005 12:17 PM

One's serve is quite dazzling.

(run out of kinks)


Posted by boynton at June 16, 2005 12:44 PM

whiff whaff

I think it was during a bad round of demon balls I happened to notice a google ad on the side entitled Table Tennis Pioneers... This may indeed be a large firm supplying recreational equipment, but my first image had been some mythic characters from Australian History battling the elements with paddles, making do with ping pong. Or whiff whaff ( as the after dinner amusement was once called.)
I wish I had been around to witness the craze of 1901, if only to receive an invitation like this:

"We are having Ping-Pong on _________ at ___ o'clock. Do join us".

See Table Tennis Postcards at this Table Tennis Antiques Site

There is a fabulous collection of memorabilia to be viewed at the Table Tennis Museum. We've only completed one round of slide-show categories to date - the vintage photographs- that included one South Australian image of Ladies playing Ping Pong under the Vines, but there are many wonderful items to be seen here.

Australian Airmen Relax in London

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Comments: whiff whaff

Here's some more Ping Pong...
http://www.punchbaby.com/media/gitfakt/clips/funny/MatrixPingPong.wmv
Posted by Nora at March 12, 2004 11:02 PM

the airmen are fantastic. munsters.
Posted by David Tiley at March 12, 2004 11:29 PM

Jolly good fun, perfect for a morning in a motel outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Posted by .s at March 14, 2004 01:42 AM

Nice movie, Nora.

I can see the Muntsers connection, David.
The Big question is: Which Airman is holding the Bat?

Hope there is a Recreation Room at the Motel, .s
These always featured a whiff-whaff table with fading bats and nets that had seen better days.


Posted by boynton at March 14, 2004 05:12 PM

vintage postcards

yes indeed, there are many visual delights to browse at leisure (leisurely here on vintage modem) at Vintage Postcards. (via Exclamation Mark) Some favourites to date:
Rexie. The Sensational High Diver
Ideal for the Nerves
Table Tennis Lovers
Tennis Mountvernon 1908
Megner Keeps Dog on Good Shoes
Oh You Cranberries
Dali's "Senile melancholy of dogs like a dizzy ski-glide."
The happiness. Attached a straw hat and feather.
the girl with glasses

and one to keep in mind for when we depart the blogosphere

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Comments: vintage postcards

I never thought of riding a grasshopper.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at September 4, 2003 11:23 AM

Really? Not even as a way home from the cricket?
Posted by boynton at September 4, 2003 04:00 PM

hahaha gold! (and priced appropriately) Love the Table Tennis Lovers in particular.
Posted by Declan at September 4, 2003 11:36 PM

Yeah the table tennis lovers are my fave too - and $US40 is getting quite steep but I'd be happy to add it to my basket.
Should such a basket exist.
Posted by boynton at September 4, 2003 11:53 PM

I am quite fond of the departing friend, and envy the rider. I only wonder where they were off to, as I have not seen them since.
Posted by .es at September 5, 2003 08:04 AM

Touche! Madame B is in fine form I see...
Posted by Scott Wickstein at September 5, 2003 09:57 AM

cheers Monsieur W

.es - I wonder too. I'm hoping they land in green pastures.
Posted by boynton at September 5, 2003 12:02 PM

ping pong3

Badda-Ping! The Whacky World of Olympic Table Tennis
You may think of Ping-Pong as a goofy game that bored adolescents play in suburban basements until they lose the ball under the radiator. But talk to Reed and her teammates and you learn that table tennis is an intense sport with all the earmarks of big-time athletics -- steroid scandals, colorful characters, Byzantine romances and groupies. Also, there's a lot of glue sniffing.
(via Arts and Letters daily)

I keep running into ping-pong, arts and whiff-whaff daily. Almost inspires a quest for a second- hand table through the Trading Post to set up in this generous suburban carport.

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Comments: ping pong 3

I always thought ping-pong was the version where you had to bounce the ball on your own side rather than hitting it over the net?
Posted by dj at April 1, 2004 10:48 AM

Really?
According to dictionary.com Ping-Pong was
"A trademark used for table tennis and associated equipment.", in a 'sailboard' sort of way?
I don't know if it's taken on this sort of definition from the recreational player's point of view.

btw According to dictionary.com Ping-pong also means:
"A phenomenon which can occur in a
multi-processor system with private caches where two processors are alternately caching a shared location. Each time one writes to it, it invalidates the other's copy."

that's got something to do with bouncing twice over the Net, hasn't it? ;)
Posted by boynton at April 1, 2004 12:43 PM

june end

Now that there is a pleasing symmetry to the archives, it is tempting to leave this game...

(but then, July is another day)

In the meantime - a couple of heartening posts on the positives by two favourites:

Patteran Pages What's a Blog For
Fragments from Floyd The Primordial Ooze of the Blogosphere

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Comments: june end

What's a blog for ?

For someone who has no real people to talk to !
Posted by at June 30, 2005 04:13 PM

I have plenty of confidantes, thanks.
(None of the anonymous ilk in real life.)
Posted by boynton at June 30, 2005 05:11 PM

Never trust a blogger!

lf you can't see their eyes and face then......
Posted by at June 30, 2005 06:09 PM

au contraire.

Meeting bloggers has been one of the unexpected rewards of this activity.
No shocking revelations at all.

(Although now in the Gravatar-Age, I might be disappointed when bloggers don't look like their picture.)
Posted by boynton at June 30, 2005 06:16 PM

If you leave now it will be linked irrevocably in a subliminal, unreachably inarguable way with my abominable procrastinatory malfeasance, and what a burden that would be in addition to the rest of it.
Not yet. You can't.
Posted by Ajax etc, at June 30, 2005 06:47 PM

Ok

I've just got to get over my regard archive...

Look forward to subliminal obliquenessance

Sorry to vacillate in public...(most undignified) though I'm sure such ambivalence is an ongoing thing with many bloggers.

There is a time for read-only blogging though?
Posted by boynton at June 30, 2005 07:16 PM

Sorry - anon, re-reading your first comment I may have misunderstood.
Thought you were having a go at us bloggers.
(Those I have met in RL all seem to have their fair share of RL companions)
Posted by boynton at June 30, 2005 07:58 PM

thankyou
Posted by at June 30, 2005 08:18 PM

what is RL?
Posted by at June 30, 2005 08:19 PM

Real life.

Whatever that is ;)
Posted by boynton at June 30, 2005 08:37 PM

You are here for our entertainment. WE will tell you when you can leave. Until then, blog.
Posted by Gerry at July 1, 2005 12:22 AM

And I was starting to think that meeting bloggers in RL was the best part of it all. But Dick Jones has a persuasive and lyrical and very familiar case to make - thanks for linking. Floyd is just terrifying. 30K new a day?!
Posted by Kent at July 1, 2005 04:27 AM

(Although now in the Gravatar-Age, I might be disappointed when bloggers don't look like their picture.)

Especially the ones who you thought were dragons, goblins, mikhail gorbachev (gorby to his mates), and the Freedom Tower. Though meeting them in a smoky boozer may be problematic if you don't like people staring at you.
Posted by Russell Allen at July 1, 2005 05:25 PM

Blogging is like the mafia. Just when you think you're out, they pull you right back in again.

Anyway, it's not over till we have the spring 2005 Blogger Round-Robin Tennis Championships. Only wood or metal rackets (no carbon-fibre), no upmarket brand name sportswear, and a drinking game driven by aces and doublefaults. "Lets" count as a Chapmans.
Posted by Nabakov at July 1, 2005 05:26 PM

Cheers, Gerry.

Yes, Kent, I think Dick Jones' post will be a good one to read in times of general ennui.
The fear factor of Fred's stats is modified by the attrition rate, fortunately. Makes sense.
Hope to see an eventual return of DOTB - or its successor?

They sound scary Russell, but haven't seen them around myself. The standard fare seems pretty horticultural and zoological.
It would be a bestiary of bloggers at the next pub crawl - (what a racket)

- or Tennis Match, Nabakov.
Damn - just when I threw away my Ken Rosewall wooden Racquet. Which was warped to boot.
I'll endorse the No-Brand Rules, and the drinking game - especially the Double and Foot Fault clauses.
(In the meantime a mini-bloggers fest could always be convened around a Table-tennis table.)


Posted by boynton at July 1, 2005 07:50 PM

Looks like your staying boyn? Good. I'm off to P.Pages. Timely. You are (BTW)a model of dignity.
Posted by Link at July 2, 2005 08:37 AM

cheers.

June loomed as a destination for a while - mainly for reaons of neatness.
As good a reason as any, probably.

(finally updated your url, Link)
Posted by boynton at July 2, 2005 06:50 PM

Boynton, please don't go!
Posted by Nick Piombino at July 3, 2005 07:00 AM

Thanks, Nick.
All seems rather self-indulgent now - to think out loud and express the fairly constant sense of ambivalence about blogging that has been with me since early days.
Main concern is the need for Reading time (not just the backlog of other blogs, but --- those things, what are they called again...)
Link bloggers (who never disclose anything directly) are a tonic to read.
A hiatus would precede an official departure I think.
Posted by boynton at July 3, 2005 01:58 PM

Recently, as you might remember,
I took quite a bit of time out from
steady blogging to read. But Boynton
ending officially- that's a blow to Blogland!
Perhaps you've gotten what you needed
to get out of it artistically or creatively,
and feel you have
to move on: I can only guess.

If you decide to keep the archives
available- you
may see a similar fate with Boynton
as with t.v. shows
like The Young Ones.
People more than ever need
to find a way to laugh and smile-
intelligently. Whenever Boynton's
run does end, if it is kept extant,
I predict the "reruns"
would continue to earn it a
continuous, appreciative following.
Posted by Nick Piombino at July 3, 2005 03:05 PM

Classy blogging rarely has a name you know,
but Boynton it is.
Congratulations on TWO YEARS.
Posted by Brownie at July 4, 2005 12:07 AM

Nick - that's much appreciated.
"artistically or creatively" - possibly.
Hardest thing about blogging may well be (as Dick refers to in his post) striking the balance between voices. The generic template invites an expectation of forum, of the temporal and ephemeral, of public and private bookmark. Let alone running narrative or original jot. I see why people have multiple blogs, but a niche blog getting more niched might not be a good idea for my stats and my fragile stats-ego.
However/bottom line: there are still plenty of blogs that inspire me, daily.

Thanks, Brownie.
Though there is always that thing, like the mysterious tea-cup, is it something to be proud of? ;)
Blogging is always nervous about its status when it gets serious...
Posted by boynton at July 4, 2005 12:34 PM

Please keep on blogging. I noticed we started our blogs around the same time. Two years is quite a cycle, and it does make you think about blogging and its pertinence.

Thank you for a lovely and always interesting blog.
Posted by ernesto Priego at July 4, 2005 03:33 PM

thank you, ernesto.

Anniversaries should lose their bite.
2 years could lose its itch.
It's only in the mind of the blogger, after all ;)

Posted by boynton at July 4, 2005 10:14 PM

ping pong party

so there we all were playing ping pong under the fluoro in the carport late into the night
suburban moonlight

Even though it seemed a suitably retro activity - perhaps it wasn't quite retro enough? Reading this article on the sonics almost prompts me to swap the foam for the old fashioned paddle.

In the old days, rallies would be 30 or 40 strokes. There was a dialogue between two players that even a child could understand." The beautiful sound of"kerplock-plock, kerplock-plock" was reduced, according to table tennis writer Howard Jacobson, to "squelch-plock, squelch-plock...

Mastering the neurophysiological skills of a sport is not just learning the game. It’s attuning yourself to the inner life of the sport, to the poetry in motion. A player masters the game the way a thief opens a safe: ear to the combination lock, breaking into the inner chambers through the subtleties. Players become part of a community that knows what it feels like when the shot is hit right.

Chop slam The Inner life of Ping Pong


Of course I have to work on the outer life of Ping Pong too.

In this lesson, you should try to hit with your partner 100 times without miss on both the right- and left-hand sides...
Say out loud, "ping", when the ball bounces on your side of
the table and "pong" when it touches your paddle
Jump when the ball bounce on your side of the table

Lesson Seven
HOW TO SERVE A CHOPPED BALL
When your serve is carrying your game, you are on a win streak.
Paddy-caking rallies, however intense and arobatic they may
appear, are for the birds. The serves become the nails for the coffin.
Conversely, good returning of serve can stop the bleeding.

From How to Play Ping Pong

playing in parkas

the weather dips again to where our speech makes idle condensation
and in that full dull lull of evening, as the cold fogs the windows,
and dogs hog the heater, I suggest a hit of table tennis, as you do.
And DF who was happily strumming away on his guitar says "Um...Ok"
So we prepare for our polar expedition to the carport
and a Parka feels slightly ridiculous and anti-nimble
and DF plays in gloves and layers
and I quickly notice the ground that a Parka gives away
a foot across the table, flat footed on the concrete
'I feel constricted' I say declining a smash
not getting the spin
but we agree it's better to be warm
like Lollypop people
and to work towards the objective
of shedding our handicap

And like running in gumboots or up sand dunes
it could be a recognised training routine, playing in parkas
because once we shed the cladding we change gear
and turn serious, and I stop ear bashing DF
about my so-called soap opera in lollypop
and take on my opponent

well as serious as random ping pong can ever really be
and as the top spin morphs across the rally
we exchange a mini smile casually

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Comments: playing in parkas

Very neat - a nice balance of the conversational & the lyrical.
Posted by Dick Jones at May 29, 2004 04:39 AM

thanks.

I think a blog is a good place to practice that balance...
Posted by boynton at May 31, 2004 12:25 PM

See - you are neat, B.
And clever.


Posted by wen at June 2, 2004 02:44 PM

whiff

boynton has fielded many queries today re table tennis or


whiff




whaff


See also ping pong


thanks Boris*
"Ping pong was invented on the dining tables of England and it was called whiff whaff".

mini bats

Bought some Mini Table Tennis bats from the Supermarket, because there's always room to scale down. I bought them for the aesthetics, but who knows - smaller paddles might increase the athletics.

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Comments: mini sports

OT, but currently watching Channel X teev news and (despite scant info) was reminded of my rememberance day comment.

http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/007688.html

"Know Skipton well. Pretty place, periodically all but razed by bushfires."

Fate's not for tempting.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 11, 2005 05:17 PM

I just turned OT (on television). Heard nothing.
X into the silly stories like Melburnians happier than Sydneysiders. (Call that news?)

"Returning now to the bushfire crisis in South Australia..."
Posted by boynton at January 11, 2005 05:39 PM

msn only now covering it.
Posted by boynton at January 11, 2005 05:45 PM

Twas a nanosecond of voice over and a map what caught my eye.

"X into the silly stories "

How could you say that boynts?! Just heard the sports type person say that this could very well be Andre's last Oz Open followed by a snippet from an actual Andre saying that it was his plan at this stage to return again. (Maybe the highly forensic reporter is more into nuance than silly face value, read my lips moi.)

Then again he may warrant a buttock directed maxi paddle.


Posted by Sedgwick at January 11, 2005 05:55 PM

Was going to transcribe that too, Sedge, but couldn't take Sports type person anymore... so threw it onto The Price Is Right awaiting Nine...

Had no idea it was so dire. 5 dead...

Read an update earlier on Dock of the Bay.
Posted by boynton at January 11, 2005 06:04 PM

Your typos pale into insignificance compared to thosa our Declan at the Yabby Sea.

"An estimated 2,000 hectares of grass has been burnt in the Carrumbellic and Derrinallum area, west of Skipton."

Local knowledge allows me to wonder of Carranballac might not be what Declan (and Whereis) is making a stab at.

http://www.whereis.com.au/whereis/mapping/geocodeAddress.do?streetNumber=&streetName=&poiType=&suburb=Carranballac&state=Victoria&x=20&y=12
Posted by Sedgwick at January 11, 2005 08:14 PM

funniest

Brad Zellar lists his funniest novels of all time. On the strength of this, I've dusted off Pickwick and may reborrow Pale Fire which I had sitting here for 6 weeks recently as a bedside ornament.

In response to the appeal for funny novels by women, I was going to suggest The Holiday by Stevie Smith which I once found for a dollar, and found very funny.
But -iest? ... Who nose.

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Comments: funniest

I haven't heard of nine of those, and haven't read any. Do they come online? In blogs, maybe?
Posted by Tony.T at April 13, 2005 01:32 PM

e Pickwick
http://www.dickens-literature.com/The_Pickwick_Papers/index.html
Posted by boynton at April 13, 2005 02:14 PM

re the Zellar choice, definitely 'At Swim Two Birds'. But for me # 1 has got to be 'Lucky Jim' by Kingsley Amis.
Posted by Dick at April 13, 2005 07:26 PM

My funniest is definitely Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide... but he hardly gets a look in :-/
Posted by Kent at April 14, 2005 01:03 AM

Undeservedly contemporaneously obscure is "The Darling Buds of May" by H.E. Bates.
Posted by Ajax B at April 14, 2005 09:51 AM

H.E.Bates features in Withnail And I ...

Marwood's (Paul McGann) voice over upon encountering a hostile farmer --

"Not the attitude I'd been given to expect from the H.E.Bates novel I'd read. I thought they'd all be out the back drinking cider and discussing butter. Clearly a myth."
Posted by Tony.T at April 14, 2005 12:04 PM

I'm going to try to sample all on the list, and Lucky Jim.
It's interesting that Douglas Adams wasn't mentioned in the comments.
My funniest #1 is probably Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut. Though these things depend on the moment.
(I once read Pride and Prejudice and that particluar time laughed all the way through for some reason).
("The holiday" is a sort of impressionistic tale with a mix of whimsy and melancholy.)
I saw the TV show of Darling Buds of May and enjoyed it - I'll seek out the book.

I like discussing cider. I'm a myth.
Posted by boynton at April 14, 2005 12:43 PM

Well, you're Myth Boynton to me, alright.
Posted by I.Buttrose at April 14, 2005 04:45 PM

Too much cider and Myth B is certainly amiss.

btw: "Whose cruel idea was it for the word "lisp"
to have an "s" in it?"
(via Dick Jones.)
http://blogs.salon.com/0002065/2005/02/24.html
Posted by boynton at April 14, 2005 05:11 PM

Hey there’s heaps of wonderful, if not utterly transcendently funny novels in the English language. I scarcely know where to begin. But here’s a few that immediately come to mind

“Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog)” by Jerome K. Jerome.
“…and George, who would not be able to get away from the City till the afternoon (George goes to sleep at a bank from ten to four each day, except Saturdays, when they wake him up and put him outside at two), would meet us there.”

And here it is online, Tone T, at:
http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/boat/boat.htm
I reckon you’d really like it.

“Scoop” by Evelyn Waugh (“…but up to a point, Lord Copper”)
It starts with “"Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole..." -then insert scathing satire about Western journalists abroad - and then close with ""Outside the owls hunted maternal rodents and their furry brood."

“Tin Men” by Michel Frayn
“And this is a table, ma'am [Your Majesty]. What in essence it consists of is a horizontal rectilinear plane surface maintained by four vertical columnar supports, which we call legs. The tables in this laboratory, ma'am, are as advanced in design as one will find anywhere in the world.”

And so many more. “The Bear Comes Home” by Rafi Zabor, “Boone” by Brooks Hansen and “Let’s Put The Future Behind Us” by Jack Womack, to name just a smidgeon.

"L*lita", "Pale Fire" and Pnin" are also a bit of a laff riot if yer in the mood.

However I'd put my hand for a small but growing group of people who think "Confederency Of Dunces" is just sub-JP Donleavey, who was pretty overrated himself, and by himself. Also I reckon Flann O'Brien's novels were overblown too. His funniest work was as Myles A Gopeen.

Honou'ble mention here for Spike Milligan's "Puckoon". Wasn't much of a novel but by the Pope's bollocks, it was fuckin' drop dead funny in places...and with some surprisingly moving pathos as well.

Anyway, fuck this. I'm off now to do shadow puppet origami with a sturdily bound copy of "Tristam Shandy. Gent." It's what someone would have wanted.. if they'd thought of it. (And for a reasonable fee, they can!)
Posted by Nabakov at April 14, 2005 09:38 PM

Disappointed that you didn't include any Henry James...

Thanks, Nabakov. Will look into those.

I like the way Brad Zellar writes about the scarcely possible process of compiling such a list that seems to be a funny sort of staple in the b'sphere.
It always feels off the top of the head, or a rememberance of moods past. That 'best' thing is such a provisional beast.
But the assorted recommendations are interesting.
& "Open All Night" is a great blog btw.
Posted by boynton at April 14, 2005 10:38 PM

Hey B-Girl, stop blogging and read "Three Men In A Boat" right now. Then consider that Fairfield Boating House is only a thrown dog bone away.
Posted by Nabakov at April 14, 2005 11:18 PM

OK, N-man

I happen to have a non-digital copy at hand, so shall do. asap.
Posted by boynton at April 15, 2005 04:11 PM

nice choices Nabakov, +ve and -ve.
I'll specially second Scoop, also Decline and Fall.

Not really novels, but: Stephen Potter on Gamesmanship - The Thurber Carnival, especially 'The Night The Bed Fell', Woody Allen's 'Without Feathers', and JOhn Lennon In His Own Write.
ooh, I'm off to reread Potter now. Stuff the rest of the vacuuming
Posted by laura at April 15, 2005 06:03 PM

Very funny clever bad intelligent and funny novel title 'Confessions Of A Southern Girlhood' by Florence King, clearly autobiographical and about the difficulty of being a highly intelligent woman in the smothering Southern culture - think Fran Leibowitz, Dottie Parker. Now I have to go and read it again . . . .
Posted by Brownie at April 17, 2005 12:58 PM

Thanks for those suggestions.
btw In His Own write - is online - but perhaps shouldn't be...
http://www.geocities.com/baby-lemonade/ihow_toc.html
Posted by boynton at April 17, 2005 03:11 PM

"...about the difficulty of being a highly intelligent woman in the smothering Southern culture "

And then check out "In the Land of Dreamy Dreams" by Ellen Gilchrist. Angela Carter with a Head tennis racket clenched in one hand, seeing red (or deep deep moss green).

More great funny novels.

"MASH" by Richard Hooker. Yes, before the film and theTV show, there was the book. Lotsa crap print sequels thereafter but the original book was some of best bawdy yet barbed humour I've come across.

"Semi-Tough" by Dan Jenkins. The MASH of US pro sports. Very funny and very bawdy too. I think the film version is also a very underated satire of America in the late seventies. And watching it now, you can see how Owen Wilson lifted a lot of his screen persona from the 70s Burt Reynolds.

"Felidae" by Akif Pirincci. Ostensibly a novel about a cat as a private eye. But I always thought Chandler and Hammett were really funny guys and a Turkish writer in Germany reworking their stuff with whiskers and fur is even funnier.

"The Space Merchants" by Fredrick Pohl and Cyril Kornbulth. Though dismissed as SF, it's a scathing (and bloody well written too) Swiftian satire that seems to be coming true 50 years after it was written.

"Downriver" by Iain Sinclair. Well I wept with laughter while reading it. But then some folks are sick aren't they? Or perhaps not sick enough? Whatever. Buy it and read it.
Posted by Nabakov at April 17, 2005 10:49 PM

Dan Jenkins is a riot - Tin Cup (absolutely not the film adaptation).
Posted by Brownie at April 18, 2005 12:43 AM

I was only thinking of funny women (- Clare Booth Luce 'The Women'! of course!) BUT Dan Greenberg "What Do Women Really Want" c.1970 - was convulsively funny.
Posted by Brownie at April 18, 2005 12:47 AM

Thanks again. This is almost a list waiting for a syllabus.
I will check them out, literally.

"I used to read while I was waiting to take my tennis lessons. It used to drive my tennis teacher crazy. Instead of watching the other players or something, I’d be reading The Brothers Karamazov or something while I was waiting to take my tennis lesson, and he didn’t think I was serious about tennis, but I was"
Ellen Gilchrist.
http://www.southernscribe.com/zine/authors/Gilchrist_Ellen.htm
Posted by boynton at April 18, 2005 09:25 AM

Lorrie Moore pre- Birds of America; Eudora Welty; the wonderful Pam Houston -- there's an excerpt from her best story "How To Talk To a Hunter" (from COWBOYS ARE MY WEAKNESS), here:

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?show=TRADE%20PAPER:NEW:0393326357:13.95&page=excerpt

If you want the rest, I have a copy handy, will post.
Posted by wen at April 20, 2005 07:55 PM

Looks like it's another walk down to the Library.
Posted by boynton at April 21, 2005 10:37 AM