Great Hollywood Wit, compiled and edited by Gene Shalit, 2002.

Some of these lines are funny, but the only thing new to me was: "Show business is a mine of humor. Example: 'Hey, that joke is mine!'" And yet I read it cover to cover (not that it took very long). Why? Why do I have this fear that I'll miss some gem if I don't slog all the way through? I wouldn't even have checked it out of the library if it hadn't been part of a leased collection we're returning because of the state budget cuts. As long as I felt I could get to it some day if I really wanted to, there was little motivation to take it home. Now that it's going back, I want to make sure I didn't miss anything. This is why it's so hard for me to get rid of books. Easy come (free or dollar a bag), hard to go.

I never understood Gene Shalit's appeal, and this book didn't shed any light on it. Our friend Geoff used to talk about his very high Q rating. Didn't they control for facial hair?