Alexander & Nicholas Humez and Rob Flynn: Short Cuts

Saturday, September 11th at 7 pm
ALEXANDER & NICHOLAS HUMEZ and ROB FLYNN
authors of
Short Cuts

Alexander & Nicholas Humez and Rob Flynn will be at the store on September 11th. Their new book, Short Cuts, is an examination of minimalist communication in all its forms.

Celebrating our long history of compact speech, Short Cuts offers a well-researched and vibrantly written account of this unsung corner of the linguistic world, inspiring a new appreciation of the wondrously varied forms of our briefest exchanges.

The authors shed light here on an ever-growing field of minimalist genres, ranging from the bank robbery note to the billboard, from the curse hurled from a car window (or the Senate floor) to the suicide note, and from the ghost-word to the ring tone. The book is divided into ten thematic sections, as varied as "In the Dictionary" (discussing such topics as Sniglets, Mountweazels, and the Wiktionary), "In and Out of Trouble" (error messages, weasel words, the pre-nup), and "On the Lam" (ransom notes, wanted posters, portraits parles ). The authors look at the comic strip's maladicta balloon and the dinner-interrupter's robocalls, the advice column and the obit, and the many ways your personal appearance tells us who you are, from the message on your gimme cap to the tattoo with your S.O.'s name on your ankle. Uncovering the elegance, the humor, and the unspoken implications in these fleeting communications, this book provides a satisfying thoroughness and an abundance of connections that unravel how the oath became the swearword and the calling card salver turned into the Facebook wall.

Alexander Humez is the author or coauthor of a dozen trade and reference books, including the collaborations with his brother Latin for People , Alpha to Omega , A B C Et Cetera , Zero to Lazy Eight (with Joseph Maguire), and On the Dot .

Nicholas Humez, in addition to the above collaborations, is the author of Silversmithing: A Basic Manual and the composer-lyricist of the CD Myth Songs .

Rob Flynn writes for the computer industry. He has authored and co-authored several books, articles, and screenplays.