David Rakoff has won the Thurber Prize for American Humor, a stunning (and overdue) choice, in that no one has a sense of humor anymore. Have you read his lastest, Half Empty, in which he goes in hard against Rent and much much more? The dashing Mr. Rakoff is the second homosexualist to win the prize.

Christmas crackers—traditional British holiday mini-pinatas that, when pulled apart, frequently contain tiny, crappy toys and a terrible joke (older American readers might recall the Dixie cups of their youth for comparative purposes)—just got a little easier to make... THANKS TO THE MACHINES. READ MORE

From the Penny Illustrated Paper, deep in the bowels of the British Library, comes this 100-year-old nugget about the relations between the classes. (This small humor moment is a birthday present for the delightful Anna Holmes, the tireless editrix of Jezebel.)

Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era: A Syllabus