Bruce McCall's Zany Afternoons

I just ordered a copy of the 1999 Barnes and Noble (reprint... not original publisher, Knoppf) hardcover edition of Bruce McCall's Zany Afternooons. Much to my surprise, they have replaced four pages found in the original with four different pages I've never seen before. The original paperback edition from 1982 on page 114 - 117 featured "Stewardesses of the Emerging Nations" - RwandaAir and all that jazz. The new printing has replaced that material with "The Adventures of The Hotel Throckmorton, est. 1906." This new (?) material (though still funny) is not nearly as good - even though my Dad and I both agree that "Stewardesses..." was probably our least favorite section of the original. But why the replacement? Was the orignal artwork misplaced? Very very odd. One thing to note that I JUST spotted after years of faithful reading, one the airplanes featured in this original section was one of the first commercial jetliners that flew for British Airways... the De Havilland Comet. Infamous in real life for it's disastrous window blowouts. The plane originally had square windows which would occasionally blow out at altitude causing the entire fleet to be scrapped. Looks like the "Airlines of Emerging Nations" contained an extra insider "joke" from Mr. McCall.

...I have to say that this book is as close as I've ever come to perfection in humour. It completely matches my sense of the absurd and has such historical accuracy. The bloke really is a genius. My copy has long since fallen to pieces and I spend my life trying to buy back the copies that I gave away. Interestingly enough, many people just don't get it. You need to have a sense of what he is mocking I guess. The funniest thing that I have ever read and looked at, this is after reading and looking at it for 20 years!!Most highly recommended of all.

Man I first laid eyes on this book while skimming the shelves of my hometown public library in December, 1983. Dumbfounded, I checked it out and took it home. Incidentally, later that day the postman brought my acceptance letter to college (UC Berkeley), and an hour or so after that I had my first set-up date with a girl I had a big crush on, who's been together with me now for 15 years. I actually don't think these fateful events colored my reading of Zany Afternoons. Just thought you might enjoy the coincidence.From "Autogyro Jousting" to "Nazi Regalia for Gracious Living," this book is a fabulous parody of splashy print promotions from a bygone era. McCall's humor, dry and relentless, brought no end of giggling around my house. I would awaken in the night laughing.I renewed the book a few times before reluctantly turning it in. After that I learned just how hard it is to find this book.Four years later when I was a senior at Berkeley I spotted it in a set of coffee table books at the Morrison Library, where as if by bureaucratic miracle students are allowed to do only recreational reading as they luxuriate in big overstuffed chairs. I revisted that book several times that year and haven't seen it since.And I think the time has come to get my own copy.

This is one of the most hilarious, quirky and sharp books I have ever laid eyes on.(Indoor golf? Zeppelin shooting, anyone?) Every page is filled to capacity with ridiculous illustrations (ads for enormous fifties cars that dwarf the driver, advertising for the H.M.S. Tyrannic, a cruise ship so large you can't see the other side) and the copy is among the finest and funniest I have ever read. Find this book wherever you must and show it to everyone