English is weird but funny - Richard Lederer, American writer

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Richard Lederer was once asked where he would get all these funny stories he answered:

"Ever since I became a writer, I had found that questions the most difficult to answer and had only recently come up with an analogy that I thought would satisfy both my audience and me. Pouncing on the opportunity to unveil my spanking new explanation, I countered with, Where does the spider get its web? The idea, of course, was that the spider is not aware how it spins out its intricate and beautiful patterns with the silky material that is simply a natural part of itself.

Asking a writer to account for the genesis of his or her ideas is as futile as asking a spider the source of its web and method of its construction.'

Richard Lederer

Introduction and biography

Richard Lederer was the kind of child who, almost as soon as he could talk, saw a butterfly and cooed, 'Oh, goody.

A butterfly will flutter by.' Even as a high-school student, Richard knew that Elvis Presley, born three years before him, would become immortal because he recognized that 'Elvis Lives' is a two-word anagram.

Richard Lederer entered Haverford College as a pre-medical student but soon found that he was reading the chemistry books for their literary value. Mr. Lederer became an English major and then attended Harvard Law School, where he found that he read the law cases for their literary value. So rather than fighting his verbivorous instincts, He switched into a Masters of Arts and Teaching program at Harvard. That led to a position at St. Paul's School, in Concord, NH, where he taught English and media for 27 years. Richard Lederer said that he would have gladly served them for the rest of his days, but having earned a...