wit
Masters of the insult, the exit line, and the well-timed chicken.
The Formosan
How did a blonde Frenchman convince 1700s London he was from Formosa?
The Rope
What do you call a woman who wouldn't cross the lawn for Emerson, but rigged a rope from her window for children she refused to greet at the door?
The Stripper at the Typewriter
What was the headlining stripper at Minsky's doing at the dinner table with Auden, Britten, and McCullers?
Peace
He fed three thousand people in an afternoon, banned the word "hello" because it contained "hell," and quietly let his followers know he was God.
The Poet Ford Hired
What happens when a car company asks a sixty-seven-year-old Pulitzer poet to name their next sedan?
The Carpetbag Method
She told her relatives she was going on a pilgrimage, packed one carpetbag, and did not come back for sixteen years.
The Hippopotamus in the Marsh
What does a chess grandmaster do when his brain is hijacked, mid-game, by a children's poem about a stuck hippopotamus?
The Tweed Jacket in Nuristan
What does a man who crossed the Empty Quarter twice on a camel pack for a Himalayan winter?
The Second Television
Paul Dirac's colleagues measured his speech in a unit they invented: one word per hour.
The Almost-King of Albania
In 1920, an Albanian delegation walked into the League of Nations looking for a king and asked the nearest plausible Englishman.
The Drum Generally Heals Up
What kind of man asks his colleagues to poke him awake if he stops breathing, and considers a perforated eardrum a social asset?
Prizes Are For Boys
What does it take to invent modern estate planning, compose polytonal symphonies on weekends, and then leave a Pulitzer-winning piece in a drawer for thirty-six years?