About this title: If we could only put aside our civil pose and say what we really thought, the world would be a lot like the one alluded to in Bierce's dictionary. There, a bore is "a person who talks when you wish him to listen", and happiness is "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another". This is a comprehensive, authoritative ...
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Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr
Date Published: 2001-12-01
ISBN-13:9780820324012ISBN:0820324019
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780820324012. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780820324012ISBN:0820324019
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: New editionUpdated_Month1|0
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780820324012ISBN:0820324019
Description: Used-Very Good. Some marking to cover, reading content fine. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780820321967ISBN:0820321966
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 400 p. Audience: General/trade. Publication Date: Jul 2000, Format: Hardcover, Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr, Number Of Pages: 404. LIKE NEW book with only minor shelfware. Pages bright and crisp, covers shinny, no highlighting or underlining. Satisfaction guaranteed. Thank you for your interest. WE SHIP IN 24 HRS IN BUBBLE MAILER. A5 read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780820321967ISBN:0820321966
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Hardcover. 2000. University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA. ISBN: 0820321966. NEAR FINE/NEAR FINE condition. Lower front board corner very lightly bumped. Very minor edge/shelfwear to DJ. An outstanding hardcover copy! 404 pp. read more
"Jim Gottreich was one of my favorite high school teachers. Indeed, he was the favorite of several of my friends although he did not last at Maine Twp. H.S. South very long.
We met when he did sophomore World History. Hank Kupjack, my first true friend in high school, if not in life, was there also. Hank knew a lot already about 18th century France, his father being the miniaturist, Eugene Kupjack, and Gottreich let him do a presentation about Versailles which, as I recall, had mostly to do with the palace's sanitary facilities. This may have influenced my major research project for the class, a paper on Sanitation in Medieval Europe. In any case, he was good at encouraging any spark of intellectual interest in us and he had a sense of humor.
This did not sit well with the administration, particularly with Otto Kohler, the head of the history department. His contract was not renewed. Hank and I led a protest, circulating a petition and getting the Gottreich affair onto the agenda of the District 217 School Board. Naturally, working within the system as we did, we failed.
Bur friendships had been formed. Hank, Rich Hyde and I started visiting Jim and his wife, Anastasia, at their Skokie home in the months following his termination. This tradition continued, individually and in various combinations of the three of us, until I went by one day to find his house occupied by strangers. I'd been away in school, out of state, for nine years. The ties had loosened.
Our visits with Jim and Anastasia were primarily conversational. They both knew a lot, a lot more than us, and occasionally they'd recommend books. I read Kazanzatkis because of them and Samuel Delany and Heavenly Discourses and, yes, The Devil's Dictionary, an old hardcover copy of which my dad just happened to have in his bookshelves.
Happily, decades later, I was visiting a friend in San Francisco, Mike Miley, who had also attended South and who had also had Gottreich, though for another class. We were reminiscing at his brother's house a few months ago and he noted that he'd hated South and had had only two good teachers there. One was unknown to me, but the other was Gottreich. A laptop with DSL was handy, so, idly, while chatting, I did a name search on him and found a James I. Gottreich listed as a deacon of a northside Orthodox church as well as a number of older listings, new articles and the like.
When I returned to Chicago I called and emailed the church, ultimately speaking to the receptionist there who knew Jim and Anastasia and was willing to pass on a greeting. A day or two later I found his familiar voice on the answering machine, giving his number, inviting a call.
A few days later we met, for the first time in decades, at a Sheridan Road cafe. He hadn't changed much. That was comforting. Now that the holidays are over I'm going to try to get Hank to join us."
"Funny, bitter, cynical, sardonic work by "Bitter Bierce," best-known as the author of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Here are a few of my favorite entries.
Cannon An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.
Christian One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ insofar as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.
Corporation An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
Cynic A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision.
Friendship A ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul.
Idiot A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.
Pray To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.
Religion A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable."
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