Re: H.L.Mencken born (12/9/1880)

 Ar an dara lá déag de mí Méan Fómhair, scríobh Ross Clark:

 > American journalist, essayist and (language link) author of _The American
 > Language_.
 > First edition 1919; 4th edition 1936 "corrected, enlarged, and rewritten". Two
 > supplements 1945 (on history of English in the USA) and 1948 (on pronunciation,
 > spelling, grammar, names, and slang). (Mencken died in 1956.)
 > The copy I have is a 1977 paperback "One Volume Abridged Edition", containing
 > the 4th ed, the two supplements, with extensive annotations and new material by
 > Raven I.McDavid Jr. (dialectologist). Though abridged, still amounting to 777
 > pages of text and 124 pages of indexes. Whew.

He wasn’t scared of work! Der deutsche Fleiß in der neuen Welt engepflanzt.

 > Mencken was a cantankerous old bugger with strong and often very quotable
 > opinions on almost everything.

I liked him a lot when I was younger (in my 20s), and then I read enough of it
to get a good insight into how downbeat about everything he was. No real
solutions, basically complaints and criticism.

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)