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Why do we write laugh instead of laf? Why do we pronounce colonel with an R? When it comes to English spelling, why can’t we simply…spel like it sowndz?

 

Anyone who has the misfortune to write in English will, every now and then, struggle with its spelling. In our erratic system, choir and liar rhyme, daughter and laughter don’t, and somehow you and ewe can’t agree on a single letter. So why do we still use it? If our spelling is so inconsistent, why haven’t we tried to fix it? How many brave linguists have had the courage to state, in a declaration of phonetic revolt: “Enough is enuf”?

 

The answer: many. In the comic annals of linguistic history, legions of rebel wordsmiths have died on the hill of spelling reform, risking their reputations to simplify English spelling. This book is about them: Mark Twain, Eliza Burnz, Noah Webster, Upton Sinclair, Emma Dearborn, Theodore Roosevelt, Benjamin Franklin, and the countless other “simplified spellers” who, for a time in their lives, became fanatic about writing kof instead of cough, tung for tongue, and fyzics for physics (and tried futilely to get everyone around them to do it too).

 

In Enough is Enuf, Gabe Henry humorously traces the “simplified spelling movement” from medieval England to Revolutionary America, from the birth of standup comedy to contemporary pop music, and explores its lasting influence in words like color (without a U), plow (without -ugh), and the iconic ’90s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Finally, Henry brings us to the digital age, where the swift pace of online exchanges now pushes us all 2ward simplification. Simplified spelling may, at last, be having its day.

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Coming April 2025

Eating Salad Drunk:

Haikus for the Burnout Age

By Comedy Greats

 

Edited and curated by Gabe Henry

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Foreword by Aparna Nancherla

Illustrations by Emily Flake

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Jokes and haikus have a common goal: to pack the greatest punch in the most succinct way possible. In Eating Salad Drunk, today's biggest names in comedy come together to do just that, with hilarious, poignant, and (sometimes) dirty haikus about living and coping in our modern "burnout age." Contributors include Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Ian Black, Janeane Garofalo, Aubrey Plaza, Margaret Cho, Maria Bamford, Ray Romano, Aparna Nancherla, Ziwe Fumudoh, Chris Gethard, Sasheer Zamata, Colin Mochrie, Zach Woods, Mike Birbiglia, and dozens more.

The book also features 50 black and white drawings by New Yorker cartoonist
Emily Flake, as well as a foreword by stand-up comedian and actor Aparna Nancherla (Crashing, BoJack Horseman, Inside Amy Schumer).

All author proceeds from the book will benefit Comedy Gives Back, a nonprofit that provides Covid relief funds, mental health support, and medical resources for comedians.

Vulture's Best Comedy Books of 2022

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The New Yorker, February 15, 2022

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Vulture, March 2, 2022

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Vulture, March 2, 2022

What the Fact?!

365 Strange Days in History

#1 Amazon Bestseller in History-Humor

Which U.S president was arrested three times in 1866 for speeding in his horse carriage? Why did British prison guards paint inmate cells pink in 1989? Which character did Tupac play in his high school production of The Nutcracker?

 

This daily illustrated collection of facts, stories, tidbits, letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, and anecdotes explores one odd historical event through the ages, like the day the first pig actually flew (November 4, 1909) or the United States ran out of toilet paper (December 19, 1973). It's the perfect reading for anyone with a curiosity for the weird and wild side of history.

For a list of sources used in What the Fact?!, click here.

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