Caricature Books

Despite advertising hype, no ONE book will double your vocabulary, but reading several vocabulary-building books can double your vocabulary. Different vocabulary-building books have different words and different explanations. If you don't learn a word from one book, you can learn it from another book.

Any vocabulary-building book will have many words, a fourth to half the book, that you already understand. You can always skip or skim the easy-to-you words.

Varied, incomplete word selection is another reason for using several books. Some books just take words used on past-standardized tests, neglecting other words. Other books, limit their words to words based on word roots, neglecting others. Often authors have thrown in personal favorite words, even if others rarely use the words. If you see a word in two or three books, it's generally a need-to-know word.

Cartoon/Mnemonic vocabulary books have their fans who like the mnemonic memory aids, which are useful before tests. If you don't like cartoons with mnemonic reminders, don't buy this book. The main weakness of Vocabulary Cartoons is with only one word and one cartoon per page, these books may only have a few hundred words and are expensive per word. Audio vocabulary books such as Elite Word Power, let you hearing each word pronounced correctly, helpful for improving speaking vocabulary.

I recently read The New Yorker Book of Money Cartoons, which encouraged me to read this book. Unfortunately, that book made this one seem a bit inadquate (hence the four star rating). First, there is no witty essay in this one to introduce the subject, unlike Christopher Buckley's outstanding one in the money book. Second, the lawyer humor seems a bit forced to me, compared to the money humor in that book.

While I think this book will appeal to many lawyers and their families, I think that few defendants and plaintiffs will be amused because the humor is often about how lawyers prosper at the client's expense.

It's hard to convey a sense of these cartoons without showing one. Unlike the money cartoons that usually work as quips, these cartoons almost always need visuals to work. Many of them involve lawyers circling like sharks surrounding a potential client, or invoke other old chestnuts of lawyer humor.

The privileged position of the lawyer compared to the client comes through clearly. "I've just about resigned myself to your getting twenty years."

Lawyers are expensive, as is the legal system. "You have a pretty good case Mr. Pitkin. How much justice can you afford?"

The humor works best when it is fresh. My favorite was "May I ask you, Miss Howre, what made you select a homeopathic attorney?"

As you can see, this book would make a wonderful present to the attorney who lost your case and you just sued for malpractice.

Seriously, the humor is pretty savage. I'm not sure that someone who is proud of being a lawyer would appreciate it. The market is limited to those lawyers with humility and a sense of humor.

The lesson for nonlawyers is to resolve your conflicts without the legal system, whenever possible. That can be a great stallbuster!

Retain your sense of humor in the meantime!

Older man, asleep in front of television set. Wife calls. "Yoo-hoo. Time to climb the stairway to paradise."

Woman holding hands with Count Dracula look-alike, addressing an older couple (presumably her parents). "I know. But I think I can change him."

Young man to girl friend's parents in their living room. "Mr. and Mrs. Ackerman, I'll come to the point. I'm deeply in love . . . and I'd like to move in . . . ."

Couple reading sedately in bed. "Why, you're right. Tonigh isn't reading night, tonight is sex night."

Man on telephone. ". . . I'm . . . madly in love with you . . . can't eat . . . can't sleep . . . can't live without you. But that's not why I called."

Unhappy older couple in marriage counsellor's office. Man says. "No heroic measures."

Woman to female friend about man in next room. "I've got him right where I want him, not that I don't want him."

Is there someone else, Narcissus?"

Couple in living room. "Well, who made the magic go out of our marriage -- you or me?"

You get the idea.

The best advice I ever got about love was to plan to give far more than I planned to receive after marrying. That would mean that each of us would receive a sense of being appreciated that would allow our love to build. And it worked.

When you are falling in love, I suggest that you both go through Relationship Rescue and The Relationship Rescue Workbook together. If you do that, you probably won't ever need them later on because your relationship won't need rescuing.

Give and look for the best!

Under the general topic of love, these cartoons cover such areas as sex, marriage, infidelity, jealousy, conflict, sexual politics, and miscommunication.

A few of my favorites: A woman at a bar tells a man, "If you quote Rilke again, I'm just going to have to take my bra off" (p. 26). Wife to husband, at home: "You may be from Mars, but the children and I are still from Westchester" (27). Categories in a Valentine's Day cards rack: "SWM TO SF," "GBF TO SWF," "DWM TO SGF" (61). And finally, a man, fully dressed with a coat and tie, and a woman, stark naked, sit in chairs at home facing away from each other. He says, "Any plans for this evening, hon?" (100).

The book gave me a few smiles and chuckles, but not much more than that. If you like some relatively tame humor about love, I recommend this book.

See page 6 of the "sample content" TT actually describes one of his templates. I suppose he realizes that it won't really hurt his sales, the strip isn't about cleverness or humor so much as comforting group identification.

I'm sure the work of Tom Tomorrow will be one of the first things John Ashcroft has burned.

Sorry, did that raise your Red White and Blue hackles? Think Tom isn't a "REAL" American? Things have gotten to the point that criticism is considered traitorous? Then this book is for you.

He also is the most informed and enlightened cartoonist in the country. Genius is so underrated. Pick up any of his books and see for yourself.

If you're into social and political commentary, this comic is for you.

Tomorrow personally takes a lefty stance but he drops daisy cutters on the hypocrisy of politicians and his depiction of a snarling Cheney is enough to give you a coronary from laughing. Of course, Cheney's not in this book, since it's like from 98 to 2000.

He also does a good job of ripping on consumerism, though he's kind of barking up a false tree, like most people who rail against consumerism.

Overall, I look forward to reading this guy every Monday when he publishes. This book is a pretty good collection of his works, views, etc.

-- JJ Timmins

If you're into social and political commentary, this comic is for you.

Tomorrow personally takes a lefty stance but he drops daisy cutters on the hypocrisy of politicians and his depiction of a snarling Cheney is enough to give you a coronary from laughing. Of course, Cheney's not in this book, since it's like from 98 to 2000.

He also does a good job of ripping on consumerism, though he's kind of barking up a false tree, like most people who rail against consumerism.

Overall, I look forward to reading this guy every Monday when he publishes. This book is a pretty good collection of his works, views, etc.

-- JJ Timmins

Next to read is Buddhism for Sheep

The book contains 100 black and white cartoons, the CD-ROM with the 100 cartoons (many in color) plus 50 more, and directions for using the CD-ROM on a Macintosh or with Windows and e-mailing the images. There is a brief introduction by editor and contributor, Robert Mankoff.

I graded the book down one star for having so many dated cartoons, down another star for having a too limited introductory essay, and down a third star for having too few cartoons on too small pages for the price. I graded it up two stars for the CD-ROM and license for personal use features. That's how I ended up at four stars.

The theme of these cartoons is "a new playground for Murphy's Law." Some of the cartoons were probably never very funny. Was it really credible to say that a restaurant cannot serve the meals you want on time because the computer is down? I don't think so, but 2 of 100 cartoons have that theme. Jokes about getting or printing out messages by e-mail also quickly wear thin. There are too many of those in the book.

Normally, I would complain about the editor selecting 16 of his own cartoons for a 100 cartoon collection, but I must agree with Mr. Mankoff that his work deserves it compared to the others.

On the other hand, some of these cartoons are priceless. Here are a few of my favorites:

"America Off-Line" with a man lying in a hammock, by Robert Mankoff

"The e-mail isn't functioning -- pass it on." Four computer users are sitting side by side as one turns to the other, by Robert Mankoff

"Good graphics, Dave, but the answer is still no." A woman turning down a man proposing on his knees, holding a video of a wedding ceremony running on a portable computer, by Robert Mankoff

"Home-Pageless" A sign held by a street person looking for a handout, by Mick Stevens

"Marge, this is davelow@meth.smu.com and anncann@bur.com -- I met them on the Internet." A man introducing a couple to his wife in the living room, by Michael Maslin

"A computer virus ate my homework." A boy explaining to his teacher, by Arnie Levin

"The computers are fine, the staff's down." A picture of collapsed abstract people, by Charles Barsotti

"Nightly Lap Top Dancing" A sign in a computer store window, by P.C. Vey

"I think I'll head back to the house for a little Net-sex and a nap." A man to his wife on the beach, by Michael Crawford

"Thanks pal, let me put you on my mailing list." Street person to man giving money while typing into a portable computer, by P.C. Vey

"Select All" and "Select None" The thoughts of a group of men and a group of women looking at each other in a bar, by Joe Dator

"I can be upgraded. Can you?" Message on computer screen, by Aaron Bacall

"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." One dog to another, by Peter Steiner

"Believe me, the e-check is in the e-mail." Robert Mankoff

"You are entitled to one call, one fax, or one e-mail." Man with two policemen in the stationhouse, by Arnie Levin

"The Bill Gates Wealth Clock" by Jon Agee

"There's nothing wrong with your personal finance software. You just don't have any money." A man talking to another man, by Ted Goff

After viewing this collection, I think you will agree that cartoons about being compulsive about the Internet would have been even more fun. I was surprised that there were no jokes about on-line ordering of products and trading of stocks. Clearly, our uses of the Internet and computers are evolving very rapidly. As the examples above show, there certainly do seem to be themes that work well over time by playing on the fundamental human foibles.

So you can turn this book into a five star offering if you can simply find a friend who will e-mail all the cartoons to you for free! Maybe that's the purpose of the e-mail a friend feature on each book's page.

Seriously, this book can give you much food for thought about how computers are affecting the way we relate to each other. In many cases, computers become barriers to communication rather than facilitators. Think through your day today, and consider how many of these jokes could have been made at your expense. How can you humanize your work with computers?

Make progress at light speed, and keep laughing all the while!

Buy it and get a good chuckle out of it!

Don't miss Deuteronomy 1:1 - 3:22 Little People of The Book: Curious George Goes to Shul!, Speak Yiddish, Amelia Bedelia! and The Cat on The Hat!