Books in Brief: Poor Russell’s Almanac

Poor Russell’s Almanac, by Russell Baker (Congdon & Lattes, 252 pp., $12). This, writes New York Times columnist Baker, is “a new, retooled, retrofitted, and otherwise gussied-up edition of the class,” which appeared some years ago. This is a neat way to showcase some new aphorisms, some collected “Observer” columns, and some musings on the seasons. It comes on the heels of the at best bittersweet So This Is Depravity collection, and shows just how funny the author can be. Baker recounts tales of the manic modern world, and he writes of maniacs raising the ante. For example, after an appropriate note on Columbus Day, he writes of seeing Columbus “on the Carson show one night. Or maybe it was the Griffin show, or possibly the Douglas or Cavett show. All these shows eventually produce very interesting guests if you watch them long enough, but oddly enough no one interesting ever appears until everybody else in the house has gone to bed.” There is also a salute to the end of gardening season, “the annual ceasefire.” Again: “What is so sweet as the first night of winter?” Only a hopeless romantic would believe that such an opening line could introduce other than a disaster in Baker’s world. To celebrate the Wright Brothers’ first flight, he describes a modern traveler’s madcap flight on a crowded jet. It is only natural to have a father rave about “the good old summertime” on a night in June. At the end of August, Baker tells the tale of Sweeney, just returned from a political convention and still deliriously bellowing seconding speeches and destroying half the house in impromptu floor demonstrations. For Labor Day, he wonders what today’s child thinks his father does, and concludes that his occupation is “something that has to do with making junk, I think. Same as everybody else.” In September, for the benefit of the helpful parent who finds himself staying up later and later as the school year progresses, Baker lists the various peculiarities of the “folks in Algebraland.” There is more than a touch of good sense in this collection. As Richard Porson, the eighteenth century English classical scholar, once wrote, “Wit is the best sense in the world.”

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Poor Russell’s Almanac, by Russell Baker (Congdon & Lattes, 252 pp., $12). This, writes New York Times columnist Baker, is “a new, retooled, retrofitted, and otherwise gussied-up edition of the class,” which appeared some years ago. This is a neat way to showcase some new aphorisms, some collected “Observer” columns, and some musings on the seasons. It comes on the heels of the at best bittersweet So This Is Depravity collection, and shows just how funny the author can be. Baker recounts tales of the manic modern world, and he writes of maniacs raising the ante. For example, after an appropriate note on Columbus Day, he writes of seeing Columbus “on the Carson show one night. Or maybe it was the Griffin show, or possibly the Douglas or Cavett show. All these shows eventually produce very interesting guests if you watch them long enough, but oddly enough no one interesting ever appears until everybody else in the house has gone to bed.” There is also a salute to the end of gardening season, “the annual ceasefire.” Again: “What is so sweet as the first night of winter?” Only a hopeless romantic would believe that such an opening line could introduce other than a disaster in Baker’s world. To celebrate the Wright Brothers’ first flight, he describes a modern traveler’s madcap flight on a crowded jet. It is only natural to have a father rave about “the good old summertime” on a night in June. At the end of August, Baker tells the tale of Sweeney, just returned from a political convention and still deliriously bellowing seconding speeches and destroying half the house in impromptu floor demonstrations. For Labor Day, he wonders what today’s child thinks his father does, and concludes that his occupation is “something that has to do with making junk, I think. Same as everybody else.” In September, for the benefit of the helpful parent who finds himself staying up later and later as the school year progresses, Baker lists the various peculiarities of the “folks in Algebraland.” There is more than a touch of good sense in this collection. As Richard Porson, the eighteenth century English classical scholar, once wrote, “Wit is the best sense in the world.”