Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms is a joy to read. Well written, smart and thoroughly entertaining, this book should be on the must-read list of anyone who enjoys words and / or is fascinated by the English language. This is not a humor book but I laughed out loud more times than I can …
Amazon Review: A "page turner"
***** 5 stars It’s unusual to call a non-fiction book a “page turner.” Yet Ralph Keyes’ EUPHEMANIA fits the bill. Once I started reading his exploration into the many facets of euphemisms, I was enthralled. Keyes has struck a rich vein with the subject of his latest book. Euphemisms reveal a great deal about a …
Florida Weekly
Florida Weekly July 29, 2009 THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE IS A RICH AND COLORFUL thing, full of strange words and unusual phrases. NANCY STETSON [email protected] “One thing I like about language is the way it reflects our culture, our social history,” says writer Ralph Keyes (his last name rhymes with eyes.) “There’s just endless variation and …
I lOVE QUOTES
From Amazon.com 4 Stars Shannon Reynolds “The Husband” (Milford, OH United States) I love quotes and I never really trust the source. Well, this book exhaustively evaluates who said what. Sometimes the conclusion is almost as unbelievable as the source of the quote. I like the book very much! There are too many quotes where …
The Telegraph (Calcutta, India)
A hilarious study of the “birth,” “death” and functions of euphemisms. Euphemisms, or “comfort words” as Keyes calls them, serve the purpose of camouflaging what is considered to be socially unpalatable. More often than not, they are used in the context of taboo topics such as bodily waste, the human anatomy and sex. The anecdotes …
Little Blog of Stories
March 13, 2010 Ah, the title says it all! I Love It When You Talk Retro, by Ralph Keyes, is a wonderful peek into the lost origins of some of America’s most beloved and obscure words and phrases. Did you know that the word ‘doofus’ came from Popeye the comic strip? Didn’t think so! I’d …