Humor Monday Update - 12/29/2008

For me, the holidays are a time for reading. I curl up in a living room chair and let the weather do what it will outside my windows. The cat joins me there and my wife works across the room on her sewing projects. The clack of her old sewing machine is always disturbing at first, and then it melds in the background noises of our household.

I've been reading mysteries by authors from this list provided by the Times of London.

 

Is there anyone you would add to the list?

  

1. Patricia Highsmith

Rule-breaking master of amorality

2. Georges Simenon

The Trojan horse of foreign crime-writing

3. Agatha Christie

The original Queen of Crime

4. Raymond Chandler

The most profound of pulp writers

5. Elmore Leonard

The Dickens of Detroit

6. Arthur Conan Doyle

Creator of the ultimate hero-and-sidekick team

7. Ed McBain

Thrilling writer of snap-and-crackle dialogue

8. James M. Cain

Godfather of Noir

9. Ian Rankin

Edinburgh's gritty crime laureate

10. James Lee Burke

American spinner of bleakly lyrical tales

11. Dennis Lehane

A tender craftsman with a tough centre

12. P.D. James

Prolific and cerebral grand dame of British crime

13. Dashiell Hammett

The man who dragged murder back into the alley

14. Jim Thompson

Revered creator of corrupt cops and sociopaths

15. Sjowall and Wahloo

The mother and father of Nordic crime

16. John Dickson Carr

King of the "locked room mystery"

17. Cornell Woolrich

Tortured pulp novelist known for Rear Window

18. Ruth Rendell

Criminal mastermind of unparalleled breadth and depth

19. Ross Macdonald

Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled heir

20. James Ellroy

The most literary of American crime writers

21. Charles Willeford

Aficianados' favourite who is ripe for a break-through

22. Dorothy Sayers

Lord Peter Wimsey's witty creator

23. John Harvey

The man behind the jazz-loving Nottingham cop Resnick

24. Wilkie Collins

Godfather of the detective novel

25. Francis Iles

Pseudonymous writer of radical plots

26. Manuel Vasquez Montalban

Intellectual gourmand whose fiction mapped Barcelona

27. Karin Fossum

Norway's foremost cold-climate crime writer

28. Val McDermid

Influential author of high-grade "Tartan Noir"

29. Edgar Allan Poe

Mould-setter for the modern sleuth

30. Derek Raymond

Hard-drinking, hard-writing British crime legend

31. George Pelecanos

Energetic, music-loving social crusader

32. Margery Allingham

Golden Age sophisticate who can chill or charm

33. Minette Walters

Unflinching chronicler of humankind's dark side

34. Carl Hiaasen

Rapid-fire satirist of Miami vices

35. Walter Mosley

A bold American voice, not afraid to tackle race

36. Reginald Hill

Playful creator of British favourites Dalziel and Pascoe

37. Michael Dibdin

Late, great ironist who investigated Italy's corruption

38. Patricia Cornwell

Shrewd pioneer of gruesome pathology

39. Scott Turow

Legal thriller-writer famous for Presumed Innocent

40. Dick Francis

Former jockey and king of equestrian intrigue

41. Edmund Crispin

Elegant and accomplished Oxford plotter

42. Alexander McCall Smith

Scottish Professor whose Mma Ramotswe has won hearts and minds

43 Andrea Camilleri

Italy's foremost crime export

44. Harlan Coben

Mature metroplitan stylist loved for his twisting plots

45. Donna Leon

American explorer of the Venetian underworld

46. Josephine Tey

Acute 1940s author whose books describe the danger of love

47. Colin Dexter

Former classics teacher who found fame with Morse

48. Nicholas Blake

C. Day Lewis' crime-writing foil

49. Henning Mankell

Swedish novelist with a bleak take of modern life

50. Sara Paretsky

Spirited creator of feminist sleuth VI Warshawski

 

 

Today's Features:

God Signs Kyoto Protocol, Goes Green by Tim Patrick

What Do You Hang On To? (Humor) by Greg Schiller

I want a bailout too! (Humor) by John Philipp

Today's Links (Check back throughout the day for updated links):

Dance Resolutions for the New Year by Con Chapman

Things I Sometimes Do by Robert - just a simple man - B.

When You Say You Never Get Sick Find Real Wood to Knock On - Humor Monday by Elsie Duggan

The True Adventures of Little Kathy: Little Kathy Never Met a Foe She Couldn't Beat by Kathryn Esplin-Olenski

Last Week In Humor

Weekend Giggle: Good times for old times with Burma Shave By John Philipp

Loved those roadside Burma Shave ads.

A Brief History of Christmas by Mike Ball

Thought~Byte No. 27 by John Philipp

Thought~Byte No. 133 (Christmas special) by John Philipp

Yiddish to English phrases by Jenn K.

DADVENTURE: Pre-Schooler Pre-Christmas Pre-paredness By Clay Nichols

This is not billed as humor, but I am a huge fan of DADEVENTURE

Season's Greetings everyone - laugh your way through the holiday By Ian Thorpe

She's good at her job, and handy with a broadsword by Chris Carlisle

Con Chapman's Links:

Jack Garner, Parsley Farmer

Start the New Year Right With Do-It-Yourself HAZMAT Training

Barack Obama, Our First Vulcan President

Yanks Sign Teixeira, Cuban Dissidents, Striking Chicago Workers

Crop Circles Found in NBA Corn Rows

Junior Leaguers Scramble for Projects in Wealthy Suburbs

Your Gift Advisor

As White Cornerbacks Face Extinction, Efforts to Breed in Captivity Grow

Did James Brown Broker Nixon Pardon?