Bøger af Tyler Vendetti

The Illustrated Compendium of Essential Modern Slang is an illustrated dictionary of the zaniest jargon, including everything from ankle-biter to zazzy! Complete with definitions, roots, and absurd usage quotes, these 300+ words are sure to make you go, What does that mean?

Imagine if forgetting your wife's birthday was not only discouraged, but a crime? That's one of many real-life blue laws (rules prohibiting a hyperspecific activity) that Don't Hurt a Sasquatch covers. This hilarious compendium dives into the quirkiest decrees from around the country, from Alabama's ban on driving blindfolded to Delaware's restriction on selling dog hair. Every state in the country has its own set of rules, carefully designed to identify the biggest problems in its culture and correct them. Most of them are normal: don't steal, don't kill, don't go somewhere you don't belong, etc. All it takes is one weirdo to throw a wrench in that ordinary list, one unruly dude who tried to hold a salmon suspiciously or wash an alligator in a bathtub for lawmakers to step in and impose some order. What are some of these crazy laws, you ask? Take your pick: In Connecticut, it's illegal for a barber to hum a tune while clipping your hair. Thinking about buying a boat house? Think again. It's considered illegal in the state of Georgia to live on a boat for longer than a month. Pigeons get the short end of the stick in both San Francisco, California and Venice, Italy: it's against the law to feed them in public in both cities. Ready to say "I do!" a third time? Hopefully, you don't live in Kentucky: women are not allowed to marry thrice in the Southern state. Want to surprise your loved one with a pizza? Too bad. Sending a pie to someone without their permission can result in a $500 dollar fine in Louisiana. In Arizona, you can't feed garbage to a pig without a permit. What constitutes as garbage, though, is up to you. The list goes on. More interesting than the laws themselves are the histories behind each, which Blue Laws goes into in detail. Like, why can't you roll a boulder in Boulder, Colorado? Who decided that you couldn't catch fish with your hands in Indiana? Why are blue laws called "blue laws" and how did they come to mean "generally weird rules" (instead of their original meaning: "laws dictating what citizens can and cannot do on Sundays")? In this informative and funny book, you will find out through a series of anecdotes, court cases, and illustrated pictures that break down just how and why these rules (most of which are still currently in effect) came to be. Good for history teachers, trivia nerds, or white elephant gift exchange participants, Don't Hurt a Sasquatch is a widely appealing book that will teach you more about how the world works than you ever wanted to know.

Behold the 300 Ugliest Words in the English Language!J. R. R. Tolkien once said that cellar door is the most beautiful phrase in the English language; since then it has received quite a bit of attention from poets and linguists. But what of the ugly words? This delightfully humorous volume celebrates the words that make people gag and cover their ears. Too long have these atrocious utterances gone unrecognized, nay, shunned from society. No longer! The Illustrated Compendium of Ugly English Words pays homage to the 300 worst words in existence, such as: Amazeballs (noun): The public's opinion on this word can be perfectly encapsulated by a recent Slate article titled "Who coined amazeballs and why do they hate humanity?" Chunky (adjective): Chunky (meaning "lumpy") is a word so vile, it can make even the most pleasant image sound disgusting. Let's try. Chunky flower. Chunky chocolate milk. Chunky Jonathan Van Ness. See? Moist (adjective): Slightly or moderately wet; damp; the linguistic equivalent of stepping in a lukewarm puddle in socks and feeling the water ooze between your toes with every step thereafter. Rural (adjective): Meaning "of the countryside," rural's definition is not actually gross. Its foulness stems more from its pronunciation, which forces the speaker to make a noise akin to the grunt of a zombie. Worm (noun): Any type of burrowing, elongated invertebrate with a soft, limbless body. (Is that a description of a real creature or a monster from a nightmare video game? Hard to say.) What makes these words ugly? It's the nature of the word's meaning, the pre-existing association the reader has with the word, or the sound and look of the word-or all three! The Illustrated Compendium of Ugly English Words catalogues the ugliness from A to Z, along with each word's pronunciation guide, definition, and origin, plus quotes demonstrating usage. Illustrations on nearly every page of this hardcover make it both a hilarious reference book and the ideal gift for anyone who can't stand the sound of words like acrid, panties, gubernatorial, ointment, and squirt. More than anything, though, this compendium can be used as a reminder that, despite all of our differences, deep down we all share the same hopes, the same dreams, and the same primal hatred for the terms that make us go, "Ugh, why would you even say that?!" Proceed at your own risk!