In this powerful memoir, the creator of the viral videos "Before You Call the Cops" and "Walking While Black", Tyler Merritt, shares his experiences as a Black man in America with truth, humour, and poignancy. Tyler Merritt's video "Before You Call the Cops" has been viewed millions of times. He's appeared on Jimmy Kimmel and Sports Illustrated and has been profiled in the New York Times. The viral video's main point-the more you know someone, the more empathy, understanding, and compassion you have for that person-is the springboard for this book. By sharing his highs and exposing his lows, Tyler welcomes us into his world in order to help bridge the divides that seem to grow wider every day. In I Take My Coffee Black, Tyler tells hilarious stories from his own life as a black man in America. He talks about growing up in a multi-cultural community and realizing that he wasn't always welcome, how he quit sports for musical theater (that's where the girls were) to how Jesus barged in uninvited and changed his life forever (it all started with a Triple F.A.T. Goose jacket) to how he ended up at a small Bible college in Santa Cruz because he thought they had a great theater program (they didn't). Throughout his stories, he also seamlessly weaves in lessons about privilege, the legacy of lynching and sharecropping and why you don't cross black mamas. He teaches readers about the history of encoded racism that still undergirds our society today. By turns witty, insightful, touching, and laugh-out-loud funny, I Take My Coffee Black paints a portrait of black manhood in America and enlightens, illuminates, and entertains-ultimately building the kind of empathy that might just be the antidote against the racial injustice in our society.

Victor Hugo once said There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come. For 55 years, it had not even dawned on me that I was a writer. My first clue should have been when I realized that there absolutely wasn't anything about which I didn't have an opinion. For five years I published a weekly newsletter for my church. No one else seemed to want to do it, and it was something that I loved doing. The fourteen years that I worked as an Insurance Agent should also have given me a nudge. I often gave group presentations that included stories about so many of my life experiences. Many clients encouraged me to write them down and share them with others. But it took a life-changing crisis that made me take a look within and find why God had placed me here. I have written a collection of insights that I gained during the first half of my life. Each chapter begins with a joke, a thought or a scripture that I believe God laid on my heart. The body of each chapter consists of a relating experience, insight or lesson that I gained. And each chapter is completed with a prayer. I have noticed how people are enjoying inspirational books that are also a Quick read such as mine. I submitted Chapter Five to the Indianapolis Star and it was published in the Faith and Values section of that newspaper. I think that one sign that a book could be good is when the reader wants more. Each person who has read these chapters did exactly that and asked if they can pass on to others what they have enjoyed or gained from my book. I would like to thank you in advance for taking the time to read some of what I believe God has shown me in my life. Come Share The Cookies. Lord, bless this reader, Amen.

A Hollywood California resident, a low keyed yet aristocratic man was cherry picking high profile private investigations as he followed in his grandfather's footsteps. With the passing of his not so famous parents he inherited a great deal of money which made his driven ambition to obtain greatness in the world as a private eye only an egotistical goal as opposed to one of any financial return. As it turned out, the twisted hand of fate dealt the celebrated Thin Man third generation offspring a fatal financial blow. From the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to the blue collar life in Detroit; The Son of a Son of the Thin Man, Nicholas Charles III made the transition from millionaire to bar keep Left with only a small checking account, his health plus a dilapidated beer garden in Detroit Michigan Nick made his way to the Motor City to start life anew. Up against the likes of Detroit's notorious Purple Gang revitalized after over eighty years, Nick teamed up with a hodgepodge group of amateur sleuths to battle the guerilla tactics of his nemesis; but who is he or she or they? In the process Nick allies himself with ghosts, hookers, detectives, murderers, accountants, a lawyer, a few common folk and several dirty filthy stinking two legged rats to uncover an abominable terrorist attack on America's youth As one murder after another is committed, the Spirit of Detroit, a Detroit Icon for over 50 years almost gives up hope on Detroit. The Spirit is put to the task of guiding the city back to prosperity by a second grade inner city school student, named Anna. Her ideals combined with a spattering of urban renewal entrepreneurs inspire the Spirit of Detroit to take his place back as Detroit's guardian with a renewed vigor for another 50 years

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 The Unabridged Devil'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 the most comprehensive, authoritative edition ever of Ambrose Bierce's satiric masterpiece. It renders obsolete all other versions that have appeared in the book's ninety-year history. A virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary offers some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our willful failings and excesses to shine forth. This new edition is based on David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi's exhaustive investigation into the book's writing and publishing history. All of Bierce's known satiric definitions are here, including previously uncollected, unpublished, and alternative entries. Definitions dropped from previous editions have been restored while nearly two hundred wrongly attributed to Bierce have been excised. For dedicated Bierce readers, an introduction and notes are also included. Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary is a classic that stands alongside the best work of satirists such as Twain, Mencken, and Thurber. This unabridged edition will be celebrated by humor fans and word lovers everywhere.

Students would submit jokes in a cardboard box, appropriately named the "dry box."Lanehart would choose five jokes from the box to read to his students. They would then judge them on a scale of 1-10, according to the dryness of the joke. The winner of the best joke won a brown paper towel. Lanehart saved nearly all of the jokes, and these have been the source of his books. This is the last of the four book series. Lanehart has previously written The Dry Off Book 1: The Mysteriously Silly Solo Edition, The Dry Off Book 2: The Dynamically Dumb Duo Edition, and The Dry Off Book 3.0 for Smarties. This final book, The Not So Dry Off Book 4: the Critically Ashamed Insensitive Edition is a slight departure from the others. Most of the jokes are similar to those in the other three books. In this book, every joke is illustrated with clip art, and contains some jokes that were never read to students in a middle school classroom. There are long jokes, short jokes, and some that might be offensive to a sensitive reader. Thus the name of the book. The cover resembles the brown paper towels the joke winners would receive So, enjoy the humor, do not take them seriously, and have some fun with the final book of the series. Lanehart has left his computer and gone fishing

This last year has been one of great turmoil as wars, epidemics and extreme climate events have ravaged the globe. Sometimes it has felt as if the old certainties that have shored up our worldview for so long are being swept away in an unstoppable torrent of disaster, chaos, and disarray. But one thing has stolidly and steadfastly resisted the foaming tides of time: Viz. No matter what cataclysms and catastrophes lay waste to our fragile planet, the potty-mouthed comic's loyal readers know they can expect an annual packed full of stuff about toilets, second-rate celebrities and unfeasibly large testicles to take their mind off oncoming Armageddon. And this year - as Viz's latest annual The Zookeeper's Boot goes on sale - is no exception to that rule. A stout and glossy 226-page hardback, The Zookeeper's Boot is stuffed with the hilarious stuff that has made Viz the country's fourth* or fifth** favourite humorous magazine (* ** possibly sixth) for well over four decades... * Edge-of-seat Adventures: Jack Black to the Future, The Titanic Mystery, The Death of Nelson and Bad Bob the Randy Wonderdog * Cartoons: The Fat Slags, Sid the Sexist, Biffa Bacon, Mrs Brady Old Lady, Johnny Fartpants, The Real Ale Twats and Roger Mellie * Readers' letters and Top Tips, spoof ads, quizzes, games, Roger's Profanisaurus and much more So this Christmas, let The Zookeeper's Boot tread its muck across your festive threshold (and those of all your friends, relatives and acquaintances), spreading its merry bouquet wherever it goes.