About this item
Malapropism - A word or phrase that has been mistaken for another, usually because of its sound rather than its meaning.Everyone has made the mistake of using a word or phrase that they think sounds correct, but in fact is not. Malapropisms make some sense. They have a semantic logic to them, even if that logic makes perfect nonsense. In Going to Hell in a Hen Basket, author Robert Alden Rubin delights in the creative misuse of words and celebrates the verbal and textual flubs that ignore the conventions of proper English.Culled from blogs, the deepest corners of the internet, as well as some of the most esteemed publications, here is a collection of classic malapropisms paired with hilarious illustrations. Some examples include: adieu, without further - Conflation of bidding adieu (saying goodbye) with ado (complicated doings, ceremony) to mean "without saying anything more.
About the Author
* Robert Alden Rubin had a writing teacher for a father, and as a child his babysitters included such future literary heavyweights as Lee Smith and Annie Dilllard. He aspired to be a cartoonist, but in college he had the misfortune of being the next-best cartoonist on campus to Bill Watterson, of "Calvin and Hobbes" fame, and turned instead to the written word, becoming Watterson's editor on the Kenyon College newspaper.
* He has worked as a a journalist, a writing teacher, and as an editor for Carolina Quarterly, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Instrument Society of America, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. He was awarded the 2015 Allen Tate Prize for Poetry by Sewanee Review.
* Rubin holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from Hollins University, and a Ph.D in English Literature from UNC-Chapel Hill. He has taught creative writing, professional writing, and business communications at The George Washington University, at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Meredith College. He lives near Raleigh, North Carolina.
