Aphorisms via Michael Dirda

Michael Dirda has to have to the best job in the world: He reads books, and writes about them, for a living. He is a longtime columnist for the Washington Post Book World, and in 1993 won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. For the past 40 years or so, Dirda has kept a “commonplace notebook, [...]

Aphorisms for Dinner

This New Yorker cartoon, by William Haefelli from the May 21, 2001 issue, always strikes home for me, quite literally, since the same number of parents and children sit around our dinner table every evening.
I never regale my kids with aphorisms, of course, unless they ask … which, for some reason, they never do. And [...]

Aphorisms by Ninus Nertorovic

Speaking of Serbian aphorists … Ninus Nestorovic, a journalist, satirist customs officer and ex-professional footballer who lives in Novi Sad, has so far published four books of aphorisms as well as an anthology of aphorisms from Novi Sad, Pecat vremena. Like his fellow Serbs, Nestorovic takes a darkly satirical view of the state of his [...]

On Serbian Aphorisms

On December 2, the New York Times ran an article on Serbian aphorisms, Dark One-Liners Shine a Light on the Mood of Serbs, that includes many of the Serbian aphorists featured in Geary’s Guide. The piece was prompted in part, I think, by Satira Fest 2007, a celebration of satirical prose organized by Fund Radoje [...]

Faina Ranevskaya on Film

I have to confess that I doubted it at first, but now I am convinced: YouTube really does have a video of absolutely everything, including a clip from a film starring the great Russian aphorist Faina Ranevskaya (see p. 53 in Geary’s Guide). I spotted this clip, of Faina playing the piano and singing with [...]

An Undiscovered Aphorism by Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman is one of America’s most accomplished aphorists in chief (see pp. 105-106 of Geary’s Guide). He had an unrivaled knack for coining blunt, energetic aphorisms. In 1973, Margaret Truman, the President’s daughter, published a memoir of her father. That book was ghost-written by Thomas Fleming, an author and historian who has penned [...]


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