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MAD: A Few Minutes With Someone Funnier Than You: Al Jaffee - YouTube

A few minutes with Mad Magazine's Al Jaffee


Purchase at: http://www.chroniclebooks.com/the-mad-fold-in-collection.html

Al Jaffee's fold-ins, on the inside back cover of virtually every issue of MAD Magazine since 1964, have become an icon of American humor.

Generations have grown up with Jaffee's inspired skewerings of our foibles and cultural conundrums.

Issue after issue, each Fold-in requires the reader to simply fold the page so that arrow A meets arrow B to reveal the hidden gag image, a simple idea that masks both undeniable artistic ingenuity and comic timing.

In this deluxe four-volume set, each of the 410 fold-ins is reproduced at its original size, with a digital representation of the corresponding "folded" image on the following page (so collectors won't have to "fold" their book to get the jokes).

Featuring insightful essays by such luminaries as Pixar's Pete Docter and humorist Jules Feiffer, The MAD Fold-In Collection is the definitive gift for the millions of fans who've grown up with MAD for nearly 60 years.

Spoons, Chihuahuas, and Autonomous Robots make Odd Title shortlist

Nazi spoons, murderous cyborgs and the musings of an invertebrate hunter are among the subjects tackled in the books nominated for the latest installment of the Diagram Prize.

The prize, which celebrates the oddest book title of the year, received a record number of submissions in 2009, with 90 books suggested to 2008’s 32.

After an intensive judging process, the "Very Longlist" was whittled down to a more palatable six by The Bookseller’s diarist and prize custodian Horace Bent.

Voting has opened on the six books at http://www.thebookseller.com/. The winner will be announced on 26th March.

Bent said: “Selecting a shortlist proved a Herculean task, as many books carried titles that furrowed the brow—not least How YOU™ Are Like Shampoo, and Map-based Comparative Genomics in Legumes.

However, the vast sum of submissions has, in my humble opinion, created one of the most competitive shortlists in the 32 years of the prize and I look forward with incalculable anticipation to the result of the public vote.

“I would like to thank fans of The Bookseller’s award for scouring the bookshelves and sending in so many submissions. Without them, and without the huge public support at voting time, The Diagram Prize would not be the eminently prestigious literary award that it is”.

The 2008 Diagram Prize was won by Professor Philip M Parker’s unforgettable The 2009–2014 World Outlook for 60mg Containers of Fromage Frais, while other previous winners include: If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs, and Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers.

The 2010 shortlist in full:

• David Crompton's Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter (Glenstrae Press)
• James A Yannes' Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich (Trafford)
• Daina Taimina's Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes (A K Peters)
• Ronald C Arkin's Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots (CRC Press)
• Ellen Scherl and Maria Dubinsky's The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SLACK Inc)
• Tara Jansen-Meyer's What Kind of Bean is This Chihuahua? (Mirror)

All books are available from Amazon, of course.

The 2009 shortlist in full

• Baboon Metaphysics by Dorothy Dorothy L Cheney and Robert M Seyfarth (University of Chicago Press)
• Curbside Consultation of the Colon by Brooks D Cash (SLACK Incorporated)
• The Large Sieve and its Applications by Emmanuel Kowalski (Cambridge University Press)
• Strip and Knit with Style by Mark Hordyszynski (C&T)
• Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring by Lietai Yang (Woodhead)
• The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais by Professor Philip M Parker (Icon Group International)

Method in this madness

Humour from the real side of: Edinburgh

Life as Ronan the Librarian is as arduous as you can imagine and maybe a little bit more than a sane person can handle.

I have chosen one of my favourites for you and it concerns a young lady requesting a new library card from Ronan, our intrepid hero. As per instructions and following the laws of a stringent administration, he requested some form of ID from the young lady. She was taken aback at this request and seemed puzzled that she would need ID to get a library card but such are the ways of civil procedures now. Ronan confirmed his request, in an empathetic but assertive tone, trying in his own way to reach out to this potential new reader. Some here felt that the only escape from their woes was through the educational portal that opened up for them in the library.

The young lady, although somewhat suffering from the ravages of poverty and exclusion, realised that Ronan was trying to guide her past this admin obstacle as best as he could. Then she realised that she did have about her abused person an item with her name on it, and it had been provided by the very organised and connected state that required her ID. It was ideal. She produced a bottle of Methadone with her name clearly marked on it, signed and dated. Surely this was proof enough but no, Ronan had been provided with a long but limited list of items that could be used as ID and this was not on it.


Ronan tried to proffer a reasonable scenario that would win his argument and would also be acceptable for the disturbed lady. "How do I know that this Methadone is really yours and you are the person named on the bottle? You must be able to understand the issue from my side?" She did, and accepted his response as a challenge and one that could be easily overcome. She proceeded to drink the contents of the bottle with great relish and concluding with a satisfying gasp!, she said "Now then, would I have done that, if it wisnae mine?"

I leave you with this question would you be so desparate to get a library card that you would possibly consume the liquid in a bottle that was labeled Methadone, if it was not yours? Is literature pull so strong? albeit in graphic novel formats.