Post: #1

This book, old but still relevant and relatable, is a fake dictionary full of hilarious invective and satirical definitions that show Bierce's outlook on life and faddish ideas of his day.

He invents a few words, but mostly just redefines existing ones for laughs.
The format and his keen observation of, and disenchantment with, other people's credulity and dishonesty, really make the book stick in the mind.

You can flip through this and find something to amuse and inspire on every page, though some definitions particularly jump out at me and probably will to other forum-ites:

ABROAD, adj. At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable.

BIGAMY, n. A mistake in taste for which the wisdom of the future will adjudge a punishment called trigamy.

CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.

DERISION, n. The ineffectual argument by which a fool imagines he has answered the contempt of the wise

EQUALITY, n. In politics, an imaginary condition in which skulls are counted, instead of brains, and merit is determined by lot and punished by preferment. Pushed to its logical conclusion, the principle requires rotation in office and in the penitentiary. All men being equally entitled to a vote, are equally entitled to office, and equally subject to conviction.

FLIRTATION, n. A game in which you do not want the other player's stake but stand to lose your own.

GAMBLER, n. A man.

HABIT, n. A shackle for the free.

JEALOUS, adj. Unduly concerned about the preservation of that which can be lost only if not worth keeping

LEVELER, n. The kind of political and social reformer who is more concerned to bring others down to his plane than to lift himself to theirs.

An inspiration to H. L. Mencken and Dorothy Parker, amongst others, Bierce is always brutally honest and dryly, bitterly funny-a true cynic. I'm fairly sceptical about many things, and while I was often right in taking a low opinion of political, religious and artistic idiocy, I was rarely pleased about it-until I read Bierce.

Post: #2

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is one of my favorite short stories. His disappearance in Mexico cut short a great career.