Curtis Books

alice denham may be a "feminist writer" as other reviewers describe her, but, believe me, even a confirmed misogynist could love this book....why? how?....because of her honesty and unflinching attention.....don't expect calm distanced patrician prose....be prepared for a headlong rush of direct perception presented through unfiltered quirky writing....one reviewer says it's about the 60's (it was originally published in 1965) but her focus is directly on the two lovers and the social milieu is just sketched in (for instance, we never find out anything about their art- she paints, he writes music-what sort?) you may have to force yourself to read carefully because the narrative carries you along at breakneck speed....great!!!

My Darling from the Lions is a reprint of Alice Denham's first novel, originally published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1967. Though I haven't read all of her work, I know that she likes to write about what happens when women are forced to fend for themselves in a man's world. And that she is a feminist writer.
How Denham differs from mainstream feminist writing is of particular interest. She writes from within the lion's (no pun intended) den. She was the first [magazine] centerfold to appear in the same issue that published a short story by the featured woman in the centerfold. That story was about a woman who runs out of money in Las Vegas, and how she handles it. It's barebones squalid in a fancy hotel. Theresa Longho made it into a great short movie. Denham does not shy away from the seamy underbelly of life as a grown woman; the protagonist in that short story does what most women have been forced by circumstance to do at least once in their lives, and trades [physical activity]for food and a roof until she can do better.
My Darling from the Lions is similar to that short story only in that Denham forcefully portrays the emotions of Grace's first true love. Of course Carl, her lover and husband, is imperfect and cannot live up to Grace's youthful, romantic expectations. He's a handsome artist (musician) who can't make up his mind whether he wants to run to or flee from service in Vietnam. He's interested in his music. He loves Grace, or at least something about her. He's also got a bit of a roving eye.
Grace the budding painter, on the other hand, is head over heels in love, convinced she's found her knight in shining armor. She manages to elevate Carl to superhuman status in her mind, while feeling terribly hurt and abused by his human flaws. Carl and Grace against the world is how she sees it.
The cement that holds them together is wild [physical activity]. Both lovers are caught in a hormonal whirlpool that makes it impossible to leave the relationship. But when Carl steps out he realizes that life is more complex than he would otherwise have known, and that all grass is plain green, no matter the side of the fence where it grows. Running from one relationship to another does not leave the first behind, and makes life more complicated.
Denham's ability to convey emotion through words is extraordinary. The electricity and the commonplace and darkish sordidness of the relationship jump from the text, leaving the reader wondering if "it" might be contagious enough to be caught from the pages. Anybody, especially any woman, who has lived through her twenties, will find plenty to identify with here: breaking up, getting back together, heaving important things (sheets of music, paintings) around as if they were wastepaper. Waiting for the phone to ring, coming through in a pinch for both Carl and his girlfriend (up close she's not so great looking-what a relief!) and [pining] with abandon.
Though it's a book about youth, written by a young woman, the tale holds true to Real Life after nearly forty years, and as is as meaningful today as a study of smart young love as it was when first published.
It's worth reading for its good writing, and for the memories of the sixties and that First Important Love. Denham reminds me of Jean Rhys: young women on their own can find themselves in extraordinary situations, and there's often a man around to make it better (and demeaningly worse) by taking advantage of a gal who's down and emotionally vulnerable. The unspoken message is to learn to live with the givens. It's not easy to be a woman in a man's world.

"My Darling from the Lions" is fascinating, and so is its author, Alice Denham. The book tells the love story of Grace, an artist, and Carl, a composer, who meet and fall in love in New York City in 1965. The direct way the two set out on their passionate journey is one difference from the usual formula, though, and the steamy description of their passion is as good as it gets. As in so many other love stories, the woman tells the story, but Grace is different from the other heroines I've met because she records the exact feelings and thoughts that go with every stage of the affair. Quite simply, the author shows how a real woman feels when she falls deeply in love. The story plays out against the background of the Vietnam War, and Carl is drafted. But the real war is the eternal one between a handsome man and a beautiful woman-and this woman can both think and paint great pictures. While I was reading the book I told my wife some of Grace's ideas and problems; she told me to keep the book on my pillow because that's exactly what she felt about our love. So, any man who wants to know what really goes on in love has a lot to learn from this book, and any woman who reads it will not be put off by fake emotions and sentiments.

Alice Denham is a great writer, and her career is downright amazing. I went to the internet to follow up a lead in the cover blurb, and I discovered that she really was a Playboy playmate in an age so gentle (repressed?) that, with a pillow fight for her photo spread's theme, a drifting feather tactfully covers her right nipple! But Denham probably showed more of herself that most playmates, present or past, because she wrote the lead story for that issue. More internet tracking taught me that Denham graduated from college in her teens and had a master's degree by the time she was twenty. Soon after, she became a glamour model (i.e., she undressed, they snapped), but all the time she was a serious author. Now she lives in Greenwich Village and Mexico and has just completed a collection of short stories about Americans in San Miguel de Allende, her home away from New York.

P.S.: The cover photo, from her glamour days, is a knockout!

This book presents an outstanding history of the Sabre/Fury family of airplanes, with techical, historical and operational information blended well into a complete history. To be fully complete, however, I would add drawings or pictures of the original straight wing prototype (rare, but they do exist)... My only other comment is that I would like to see a larger color photo section for the price of the book.

In 1963 Ray Wagner published "The North American Sabre," (Doubleday) and not since then has anyone come even close to telling the definitive story of the F-86 Sabre until Duncan Curtis' effort. Wagner's book is long out of print, (Shame on Doubleday, it's their loss). So, if anyone wants to know about the Sabre, Curtis's book is the one to add to their library. I doubt, quite seriously, that anyone, ever, will be able to top the amount of research and effort and knowledge of the F-86 varients that has been recorded in this book. Way to go, Duncan!

The F-86 Sabre....To aircraft lovers and historians, a NEW Sabre book has arrived and was well worth the wait!! Author Duncan Curtis has done his homework and has produced a superlative product! He has done a good balance of the Sabre history in the pages written. He has, for perhaps some readers, turned up new information and this makes for good reading. The photo content is excellent. The only minor problem is that the printer should have done more color for the price and Mike Fox's artwork should have been in color on pages 188/189. This book is a definite "get one" for your library.

The paperback version of this book is somewhat small, 5 1/2 x 7 3/4, so the pictures inside are quite small, making it hard to really accurately see the Indians. Many of the photos came out fairly dark, so the images are not clear and sharp. It does, however, chronicle the entire portfolio which Curtis completed in his original book. Since you can't usually find the original, this is the best you can get. Would be better in a larger format, however. Very interesting text.

I caught a special on the Documentary Channel called "Coming to Light: Edward Curtis". I realized right then and there that I had to see this book they were talking about: The North American Indian. This is truly a ONE-OF-A-KIND book. I leave this book out on my coffee table and it gets attention. And because it's mostly pictures, my 7 year old daughter loves it. The most beautiful and meaningful collection of photos ever. I wish more people knew of it. What Curtis went through to make this is equally intriguing as the book itself. BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT.

6 frameable posters each about 18" x 12" (with no folds!)--a bargain! One might quibble with the choice of images, but it would be hard to choose 6 images from Curtis' vast catalog that everyone would agree on.

"...unique and I highly recommend it as a first book on programming for biology-oriented professionals interested in using perl...excellent for self-study...can also be a great resource as classroom material..." (Clinical Chemistry, Vol. 50, No. 2, 2004)

I have taught Perl from Tisdall's "Beginning Perl fro Bioinformatics", and was frankly frustrated by the seemingly random order of presentation of topics. The students in the class felt the same. This book, however, does it right: it is a clear, pedagogic introduction to Perl programming with applications in bioinformatics. Highly recommended for biologists who never programmed before.

Although James Tisdall's Perl books (Beginning/Mastering Perl for Bioinformatics) could be a little scattered, I found that they offered more for the biologist learning Perl than this one; you could almost buy both those books for the price of this one! This book seems structured more along the lines of the (superior) Learning Perl and Intermediate Perl by Schwartz et al, with a few biological references thrown in as examples. Some of the most important aspects of biological sequence analysis were glossed over fairly quickly if at all. I found it somewhat amazing that file format parsing, restriction enzyme analysis, sequence conversion, transcription-translation, program output parsing, and other fundamental topics were either covered very briefly in passing or not covered at all. Disappointing!

I believe one might find this book was a great read first time out (it is well written), but that once they progressed to other texts (Learning Perl, Intermediate Perl, Programming Perl), they would rarely, if ever, refer back to this one. That's not good for a $50 book. I can't see myself using it in the future when I have the Camel and Llama covering my back, along with Tisdall's texts. Basically a lot of sugar coating without much substance.

Oh, and there's a major mistake in the Object-Oriented Programming section, one which really breaks your programs. In short : -> != =>

My advice: spend your money on those texts and use your imagination on what Perl can accomplish for you as a biologist. If you are an advanced Perl programmer and biologist, at least check out Tisdall's books and wait for the long-rumored BioPerl book. I would give it 3 stars for the writing but the price doesn't justify it, sorry. The Amazon review system won't let me change the rating though, so you lucked out this time!

I took this course for the fun of it the only problem is this book (author) has an ego, how appropriate. I am a science major and am used to classes being difficult, like Organic Chemistry and such. It is difficult with good reason, it's complicated. This book, in my opinion, tries too hard to make it seem as though this stuff is complicated when in fact the information is basic and in many cases just common sense. This book fluffs up this material too much. It has a way of making easy stuff seem difficult and profound, when you actually decode what it's saying, it could have been better worded and summed up to a fraction of its length. The topic is interesting but the words psychologists come up with are self-inflating.

I really enjoyed this book, that I bought as a text book for my Theories of Personality Master Degree course. It is a University level text that explores many of the psychological theories and the lives of the men and women that created them, with a focus on the twentieth century and american psychology.

Starting with the obvious Freud and Jung, the fathers of psychoanalysis, Engler moves into exploring many of the later development of modern psychology and its personality theories. We find the theories of Fromm, Erikson, Klein as offshoots of psychoanalytic theory as well as very condesed and clear explanations of behaviorism, the cognitive approach, the existential approach and more.

What i loved about this book (one of the few books that i have decided to keep rather than resell after class) is that all approaches are so well explained, with a neutral stance, not biased towards one approach or the other. Engler presents all theories with great respect and you can really tell that she honors and loves all of these very wonderful great thinkers of our time....and as a result, you end up loving them too! Studying this text was a real pleasure...I would recommend this book to any University thinking about adopting it as well as to people that just want to learn more about western psychology of the twentieth century. A really pleasant text!

I used this text in my freshman PSYC studies & thoroughly enjoyed it! It's a great jumping off point for a broad scope of the basic PSYC concepts in assessing the human personality (on individual scales, cultural scales, attachment scales, etc.). I enjoyed the text so much that I decided to keep it for reference!

According to the author every venomous snake in peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand is in it. Besides the photos this is a good reason to buy it.

This is a pocket size field guide. Don't expect a big or even medium size book. But for its small size it has much value as a traveler's guide. If you plan to go hiking or explore an exotic destination like Thailand, this book can be very important. We tend to forget that snakes are more common in other parts of the world. A field guide with many color photographs of snakes (in particular), lizards, and turtles can be very helpful in identifying which are venemous and dangerous. All photographs are accompanied by a brief description. Furthermore, it was made small specifically for explorers and field researchers. You will not have to carry many large books on the field. Even if you are just into reptiles, this book is a great buy because it is one of the few to touch this area of the world.

This book is a great book for a variety of reasons. Most of the pictures are good and the text is generally accurate. The reason I like this book is because Asia is so poorly researched and the wildlife, especially herps, is poorly studied and published. In general, this book provides a small glimpse to this great and undiscovered area of the world. Now, if only the amphibians were shown!

Lt. Holloway, after having perhaps the worst day of his life by making a mistake that cost the lives of some popular men in George Company, is surprised to be given command of that same outfit as they try to take Shark and Octopus, two of the endless series of jagged peaks in front of them seemingly stretching to the horizon. The whole book covers just a few days of fighting in Korea and shows the maturation of Holloway from a staff officer to a valuable combat commander. There are several stereotypes portrayed in the battalion but the story is a good one. Good book about tactics: how to effectively use a squad, a platoon, artillery and heavy weapons to achieve your tactical objective in rocky and rolling country. Good work on the meaning of leadership, the kind that gets men back home.

The Price of Courage is a story of ground combat, as viewed from the level of combat command -- and written, as it should be, by a man who has himself led infantry forces in battle, in the Korean War, where combat reduced itself daily to the awful task of getting one man around one rock in the face of fierce, inch-by-inch resistance.

Eric Holloway is given command of George Company on a cold and barren mountain when he least expects it and when, in the minds of some of his men, he least deserves it -- after a day of horror, when his own blunders have cost American lives and frustrated the battalion's advance. Under the grim pressure of necessity and in the face of bitter enemy fire, he leads his battle-weary company forward to take a mountain top. With only his courage, his instincts, and his combat training to guide him he must decide when to leave his post and risk his own life to lead a lost platoon to safety, when to lay on the artillery preparation that may cost the life of one of his wounded officers, when to bully an inexperienced lieutenant into moving forward under fire -- and when and if to ignore the orders of a "chicken" colonel who has had no combat experience.

The entire story covers but a few days and a few thousand yards of a campaign that has no clear aim other than the taking of real estate. Yet in that time Eric Holloway develops from "one of those eager beavers" concerned with career and recognition, into a resourceful and responsible commander who has earned the devotion of his men through his own courage and decisiveness.

The glum and desperate courage of the griping, but gallant, soldiers; the frightening arrogance of two or three rear echelon incompetents; the horror of a misdirected "Time on Target" that falls on friendly troops; the terrifying spectacle of a combat officer rendered helpless by fear; the cool courage and wizardry of an artillery forward observer who "walks" his shells right along the very edge of a target; the ghastly chill of sudden lonely death in the dark; the simple joys of comradeship and respite from gunfire; the inspiration of a roughneck and great-hearted commander; the gripping (and ringingly authentic) details of a yard-by-yard infantry advance along rugged and narrow ridges; the measureless bravery and devotion of those undistinguished, unimportant, and uninfluential dogfaces who do the front-line fighting -- all these are set forth in prose as clean and hard as a bayonet.

The Price of Courage is an unususal book in many ways: It is rough and plain-spoken and unprettified, without being larded with obscenity; it pictures truthfully the horror and waste of war, while celebrating the patient self-sacrifice, the nobility, and the work-a-day heroism of the plain soldier; it gives a real experience of what it is like to take men out on a cold and nameless mountainside to face death or disfigurement; it is mature and unsentimental and unromantic; and above all it tells a simple, fast-moving, well-plotted story that moves in a clear straight line, taking the reader up with the first word and not releasing him until the final sentence.

Anders provides a compelling, yet abbreviated, glimpse into infantry ground combat during the Korean War. As a novel, this book is highly entertaining and captivating. However, its downfall is that Anders does not fully explore the severity of the conflict and minimizes both the contributions of U.S. Army on the Korean Peninsula and the loss of life on both sides. The characters in this novel are never fully-developed and tend towards stereotypical representations of combat and military service, yielding a formulaic "Hollywood" style plot reminiscent of war movies from the period. The action is fast-paced and keeps even a casual reader's attention from start to finish. Despite these problems, The Price of Courage yields a believable story that gives the reader an inside look at the horrors of war through the eyes of those on the ground. This book is worth the read and recommended as background reading for studies of the Korean War or pre-Vietnam military operations and tactics.

I have read all but one of her books and I don't think there is one thing I don't agree with her on. She is a gifted writer as well as a compassionate person. When I think of a TRUE Christian, she definately hits it dead in the center. This is so transparent from her writing. You get to know her. As Christians we are to love everyone! Not beat them up with our words and actions. We all could use more of the love and understanding that she willingly offers in so many of the "hot debates". Thank you Barbara for this one. It has personally brought me to a better place as a person and as a Christian.

I am a big fan of Barbara Curtis's writing. As a non-Christian liberal, I often have a lot of trouble even understanding what Christians are trying to say, much less finding areas of common ground. So when I discovered Barbara's blog, Mommylife.net, I was thrilled to find a person espousing different beliefs than mine who I could not only communicate with, but also connect with.

Barbara has lived on both sides of the equation, living in the San Francisco Bay Area for years, and changing from being a liberal activist to a strong conservative with her conversion to Christianity, so she understands a lot of the ways in which liberals think about things. This knowledge makes it easier for her to know how to communicate her Christian and conservative beliefs to liberals.

Christians would like to think that for a liberal like me, reaching out and conversing with Christians about their religious and political beliefs would be easy if the desire was there to do so, but it is not. In the section on communication, Barbara says that, "Most Christians are probably not aware that sometimes the "language" they speak is almost as alien to nonbelievers as Spanish is to English-speakers."

As a non-Christian, I can assure Christians that this is absolutely true. I reached out and tried to speak with a couple of Christians that I know in person, and didn't have much success in finding common ground. Words and phrases like "the good news", covenant, "feel convicted", testimony, "sin nature", and the frequency with which Christians say the names Jesus, God, and Christ, are disconcerting to non-Christians, and Barbara has a whole section listing some of the words that non-Christians may find off-putting or not understand. She also shares some communication strategies that Christians can use to be true to their God without stunting conversation with non-Christians.

Barbara also talks about a lot of politically charged social issues such as abortion and homosexuality. She talks about the liberal belief system that leads us to many of our beliefs and shows some of the most compelling conservative and Christian arguments against those beliefs. She also has a section at the end of each chapter with questions to ask yourself and discuss with others, issues to research or think about more deeply, and things that real people can do to get involved in their community and make a difference on the issues that Christians and conservatives often care about the most.

What I loved most about this book is the way Barbara is able to be clear-eyed and honest about the ways conservatives and Christians need to improve in order to make a convincing stand against these issues. She doesn't just bash the evil liberals like many have made a living doing, she endeavors to provide understanding of both sides, and constantly encourages humility and warns against self-righteousness, so that Christians can make good use of their opportunities for friendship and discussion with those who don't think like them.

In Reaching the Left from the Right, author Barbara Curtis gives new meaning to the phrase, "been there, done that." As a previous I-hate-America hippie activist to a reformed Christian woman who loves the Lord, Curtis opens our eyes to what it means to look at all of God's children with love and acceptance--even when they have different moral or political values than yours.

You know what I enjoyed about this book? Truth. The kind of no-holds-barred truth that hit me right between the eyes and convicted me of my own prejudices towards others, who thought and believed differently than I did. I didn't avoid them because they didn't act or look the way I did. I avoided them because I didn't understand their position, their thoughts, or their beliefs. And because I didn't understand, I never took the steps to get to know them better. My great loss.

But as Christians we're called to action. Curtis lends sage advice stemming from years of experience of living on both sides of a movement on how to bridge the gap between the left and rightmovements. As she describes these groups in her book, the similarities between the two sides is uncanny, "It's justthat members of each group--thinking inside their own established paradigms--have a hard time seeing this about the other side, because the ways of going about it are radically different."

Curtis coaches us to compare what the Lord says in the Bible and the beliefs of others, while sharing ideas on how as Christians we can step outside of our comfort zones and reach out to others who we might normally avoid.

If you want a book that will teach you to compassionately connect with those around you, then I highly recommend Reaching the Left from the Right. Jesus did not come to minister to those who were saved, but to the unsaved. If we are going to do what Christ calls us to do, then we must first learn what others believe so that we have the compassion to meet them where they live.

Armchair Interviews says: An appropriate book for this world today.

I must have had a lot of spare time as a kid, because we played Rolemaster all the time. And that's a fair accomplishment with the complexity of the game.

I recently uncovered my old copy of the RMSS in the back of a storage unit and have spent the last few nights poring over it. It's still an attractive product: every page of every book is perforated and hole-punched making it simple to organize the rules in your own fashion, inserting "house rules" wherever desired. ICE went to a lot of work to show that they weren't dead yet, and the overall production value is significantly better than earlier editions.

The game itself is one of the most in-depth treatments of fantasy role-playing I've ever seen, to the degree that I've never been able to take the 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons rules seriously. "What, I can't believe they left out the combined effect of exhaustion, injury, and previous failures on spell-casting!" You can put together any setting, and have incredibly flexible rules for character development. You want your fighter to learn a magic spell? No problem, it'll just take 20 times as much effort as it would for him to improve his weapon skills, and he'll never be as good as a true wizard. But hey, at least he'll know how to make a little light without a torch.

On the other hand, the complexity of the game rules can be overwhelming. The authors covered everything they could think of, in every possible combination, and assembled it into a huge collection of rules and tables. You can ignore as many rules as you like (that's the golden rule of any RPG, by the way), but even figuring out what rules to ignore is a daunting task.

I can't recommend RMSS as a first exposure to role-playing unless you happen to find yourself a good GM who can walk you through play without crushing your brain with all the rules. Go ahead, just play and roll the dice whenever he tells you and take his word on whatever happens.

Even though this particular edition is out of print, Rolemaster is still alive, and can be found both in paperback and PDF forms.

The Rolemaster series of roleplaying products is quite simply - in my opinion - the best roleplaying system around. RMSS heralds the first major re-edit since 1980, and it rebalanced the professions, skill system and magic - with only cosmetic alterations to the combat system. This title (RMSS 3-in-1) includes the entire system - Spell Law (magic); Arms Law (combat) and the Standard Rules (Character Creation & Skill System). Unfortunately, although the individual titles are still available, this slip-case title is no longer in publication - if you can find it anywhere - snap it up!

Highly appreciated among rpg hardcore players, Iron CrownEnterprises Rolemaster Game System is ideal for applying rich andcomplete rules to ANY world you could imagine! However is best suitedfor Medieval(Swords & Sorcerers)worlds and is the logic next step for MERP players ( ... ) Now this particular package includes: -Spell Law ( ... ) -Arms Law ( ... ) and -Rolemaster Standard Rules ( ... ). This is also a perfect buy for all the people that missed the (out-of-stock) Rolemaster Boxed Set ( ... ) dated 1991. So this is a new edition dated 1996.

This is not a set for newbies. It is a complex but higly playable role game system full of companions, add-ons, excellent and huge magic rules and adventure books.

I've also played Dungeons&Dragons, AD&D, MERP, Cthulhu,Star Wars,and several other rpgs and this is the BEST so far! Just buy it!

I was interested in reading Thomas Mann-- it was a big hole in my knowledge of German literature. A friend of mine who is something in the way of a Mann scholar recommended that I begin with Royal Highness.

I loved it. I have seen it compared to a fairy tale, but if so it is a fairy tale for modern times. The Prince is heir to a line of helplessness and theater and the Princess is a railroad heiress driven from US society because of mixed racial heritage.

I have also heard the theme of the book described as the US providing the necessary energy and change to a decaying European nation. While that is true, it is also worth bearing in mind that it is only in Europe that the railroad baron can find a place to rid himself of his legacy of exploitation. It is also only in Europe that he finds his daughter can be accepted despite her Native American grandmother. Royal Highness is the optimistic marriage of two cultures which leads to cultural renewal as much as it does a love affair.

The Curtis/McNab translation seemed very well done-- it had none of that strange stiffness than can often characterize German prose translated into English. I do not know how this will compare to other Mann books, but it was a big success as a first experience.

Here is an early Mann work that might be an excellent introduction to those who are interested in his work. It is witty, the story flows naturally and it is much less sombre than many of his later works.

The plot centers around a small German town that is a "throwback" to the days of royalty. It maintains a monarch, although the position is mainly just for show. A young Prince is promoted to being a "virtual" monarch when his lazy older brother feels he has better things to do with his time than be king.

The Prince, then, does his best to use his "exalted" (albeit symbolic) position to better the quality of life of his people. Unfortunately, the financial ministers of the kingdom are incompetent enough to make the ENRON executives proud with their mis-dealings.

For a refreshing look back at 19th (and perhaps early 20th) century Germany, this is a truly wonderful book. Mann's prose is exquisite and he always manages to poke fun at "royalty" in the most subtle ways. So, if you're looking for a fairy tale for grownups, the great Thomas Mann just MIGHT be the place to look!

Thomas Mann is an excellent author, but if you've never read anything by him before, begin with "Magic Mountain" and "Death in Venice," followed by "Buddenbrooks" and "Felix Krull" before tackling this book. This is Mann's second novel and a bit of a letdown from "Buddenbrooks." Mann uses the literary technique he would later exploit in such marvelous fashion with "Magic Mountain" -- that is, examining a small, isolated part of society as a microcosm of the larger whole, namely Europe.

Without giving away any of the surprises, this book is about a rather idealistic female's impact on a small village. Mann poses thoughtful questions about the usefulness of artistic values in a bourgeois society while revealing the inner nuances of his characters as he does so artfully, as in "Buddenbrooks" and "Felix Krull."

To top it all off, this Mann novel is probably his most humorous. For those not knowledgable on Mann, he is not readily identifyable for the humour in his works, making this one rather noteworthy.