The books for this week’s Summer Reading Challenge were Marne Davis Kellogg’s Perfect, which was quite fun, and Steve McDermott’s How to be a Complete and Utter Failure at Life, Work, and Everything. The second is a book for review from Amazon Vine. While it has a bunch of jokes about Yorkshiremen which were rather lost on me (maybe Pink Hebe can fill us in on the stereotype of Yorkshire on knowledge of which these jokes relied), there also were plenty of witty bits. It got slightly confusing, since it was written as “Don’t develop any goals” and so on, but then had segments where McDermott dropped that affected gimmick and wrote sincerely. I didn’t actually lose track, of course, but as a reviewer I noticed the requirement of mental shifting.
I read the funniest and most interesting bits of this book aloud in the car to my family until they forced me to stop.
It almost caused me to commit boldly to self-employment.
Yorkshiremen: Don’t travel well (even in the 21st Century, I came across one who had not been outside Yorkshire for about five years, and only then over to Manchester), spend much time walking up hill and down dale, have ‘Yorkshire grit and determination’, eat Yorkshire Pudding (a batter pudding, similar to pancakes, but roasted in a big dish so it all puffs up) to fill themselves up before their main course of beef, drink the strongest tea in Christendom. Solid, dependable, and not terribly imaginative. Yorkshire is the most beautiful part of the British Isles, in my opinion, but golly gee, it gets cold there. Read the James Herriot books, and Gervaise Phinn for further information rather than my random fact(oid)s.
A joke would help me give context? ~x~
Boldly committing to self-employment sounds marvelously feasible! Particularly for a person with the diverse interests you seem to have.
@pink_hebe – I drink Yorkshire Tea, and go to great trouble to get it. Once you’ve had it, other kinds of tea just aren’t as good. You sip your Twinings or Celestial Seasonings or Stash or whatever, and sigh softly, thinking of Yorkshire Tea.
McDermott says things like, “Others would call us [people from Yorkshire] opinionated, but they’d be wrong.” Not tremendously funny, even with the information about grit and Yorkshire pudding. I’ll try to find more examples. Thank you, though. I’m guessing that the solid, dependable, unimaginative bit is what the jokes are about.
really opinionated! One could, possibly, add ‘Set in their ways’ to the stereotype.
Me, I like my Darjeeling. But then I drink it black, and I find Yorkshire Tea a Bit Much. When up in Yorkshire, I have to specify wussy southern tea in order to get something drinkable.
I was going to start going on about Yorkshire and Rapper dancing, but then I found it’s from a different county. Still. The best ones come from Yorkshire (Black Swan Rapper).
~x~