More Adventures in Research
More adventures in research. Harry Turtledove turned me on to this one a couple of years ago - I find it a soothing and informative before-bed read (when I should actually be researching either the Presidential election of 1840 - for Benjamin January - or what the Los Angeles barrios were like in 1924 - for the second Hollywood mystery). American Cornball is an exhaustive compilation taken from old joke-books, old "novelties" catalogs (the precursors to Archie McPhee), old magazine, newspaper, and animated cartoons, of stuff that used to be considered hilarious in American culture and now isn't. From the hate-filled pervasiveness of racist humor to the "hunh?" of humor about women's ankles and people getting their hats knocked off, the guy really did his research, and writes in a pleasant, readable, thoughtful style. Sometimes simply curious, sometimes really unsettling to see some of the things that people at one time thought it was okay to make jokes abo