A weekend chit-chat reminded me to dig out one of my favorite books. Thought I'd provide three samples.

 

Ho Hum: Newsbreaks from The New Yorker [compilation, editing, and commenting by E.B. White] New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. 1931. It's illustrated with cartoons by Little King creator Otto Soglow. Quoting from White's foreword: "There is a secret joy in discovering a blunder in the public prints. Almost every person has a little of the proofreader in him; and just as a certain kind of person walks through a field with his eye peeled for four-leaf clovers, a similar kind of person goes through a newspaper looking for errors." There was a follow-up, Another Ho Hum: More Newsbreaks from The New Yorker, which I haven't seen but which I think I'm going to look for.

 

Sometimes, White doesn't provide more of a comment than the headline:

 

THE DEPARTURE OF CLARA ADAMS

[from the Burbank (Cal.) Post]

Among the first to enter was Mrs. Clara Adams of Tannersville, Pa., lone woman passenger. Slowly her nose was turned around to face in a southwesterly direction, and away from the hangar doors. Then, like some strange beast, she crawled along the grass.

 

Sometimes, he makes a remark.

 

If one suffers from cold feet, often plunging them into cold water and then rubbing briskly and thoroughly with halves of apricots, whose centers have been filled with green cherries. -- San Francisco paper.

We'll suffer in silence, thank you.

 

Or a response.

 

Would anyone care to discuss current economic and international problems with keenly interested but not well-versed young woman? -- Adv. in The Nation.

No.

 

Maggie here again: Just thought I'd share. Happy day.