Product Description
Affectionately combining both the idyllic and ironic, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is Stephen Leacock’s most beloved book. Set in fictional Mariposa, an Ontario town on the shore of Lake Wissanotti, these sketches present a remarkable range of characters: some irritating, some exasperating, some foolhardy, but all endearing. Painted with the skilful brushstrokes of a great comic artist, the delightful inhabitants of Mariposa represent the people of small towns everywhere.

As fresh, funny, and insightful today as when it was first published in 1912, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is Stephen Leacock at his best – colourful, imaginative, and thoroughly entertaining. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

It made me homesick for a little town that never existed.
Leacock wrote in the introduction that Mariposa represented seventy or eighty different towns throughout Canada. The residents were composite characters of people he knew. Leacock did a great job of making the town seem alive. I wished I were there for the picnics, the cruises on the lake and the poker games. The plots of vignettes were good. The writing was too cute sometimes. His classical references were over my public school education at times. The characters were drawn fairly well. What the author did very well was the throw away descriptions of the characters. He would almost insult the characters he was describing in such endearing terms that I immediately felt drawn to the character.

Leacock was amazing talent. The book wasn't deep, but it was a fun, enjoyable ride down memory lane.

very nice book
Nice book. But in this edition, there is no chapter title on each page, so it's a littledifficult to track the chapters.

funniest book i've ever read
no hype. i couldn't stop laughing as i was reading this. and i mean laughing out loud. in a cafe. with everyone staring at me. but i didn't care. and i couldn't help it if i did. it's just too hilarious.

It Soothes the Soul
There is at least one author who may remind you of Stephen Leacock, namely Garrison Keillor of Lake Wobegon fame, but Leacock should be recognized as the ultimate master of quaint, bucolic humor. Leacock, who died in 1944, became arguably the most prominent Canadian humorist of his day (and probably of all time). What is ironic about that claim is that Leacock worked for most of his life as a professor of economics. We do not usually equate economics with humor, preferring to think of that profession as one of bow ties and supply and demand charts. Throw that presumption out the window and pick up a copy of "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town," Leacock's best known work available through the New Canadian Library series.

For me, one of the funniest sections of the book was the introduction written by Leacock, where he gives you some background about himself and his profession. This short piece of writing quickly gives you an idea of the type of humor you will find in the actual sketches: a very sly, very quiet and clever type of humor that often takes a while to sink in. Leacock does not rely on rim shot jokes or manic posturing in his writings. Instead, he creates the fictional Canadian town of Mariposa and populates it with small town archetypes that are wonders to behold.

All of the characters are hilarious in their own way: Mr. Smith, the proprietor of the local hotel and bar, full of schemes to earn money while trying to get his liquor license back. Then there is Jefferson Thorpe, the barber involved in financial schemes that may put him on the level of the Morgans and the Rockefellers. The Reverend Mr. Drone presides over the local Church of England in Mariposa, a man who reads Greek as easy as can be but laments his lack of knowledge about logarithms and balancing the financial books of the church. Peter Pupkin, the teller at the local bank, has a secret he wants no one to know about, but which eventually comes out while he is courting the daughter of the town judge. All of these characters, and several others, interact throughout the sketches.

Leacock has the ability to turn a story, to make it take a crazy, unexpected twist even when you are looking for such a maneuver. That he accomplishes this in stories that rarely run longer than twenty pages is certainly a sign of great talent. By the time you reach the end of the book, you know these people as though you lived in the town yourself, and you know what makes them tick.

Despite all of the crazy antics in Mariposa, Leacock never lets the reader lose sight of the fact that these are basically good people living good lives. There seems to be a lot of feeling for the citizens of Mariposa on the part of Leacock, which comes to a head in the final sketch in the collection, "L'Envoi. The Train to Mariposa," where he recounts traveling back to the town after being away for years, with all of the attendant emotions that brings as recognizable landmarks come into view and the traveler realizes that his little town is the same as when he left it years before.

I suspect there is a historical importance to "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town." These writings first appeared in 1912, a time when many people living in the bigger Canadian cities still remembered life in a small town. In addition to the humorous aspects of the book, the author includes many descriptive passages concerning the atmosphere and layout of Mariposa, something instantly recognizable to anyone who grew up in such a place. Nostalgia for the simpler life of the small town probably played a significant role in the book's success.

I look forward to reading more Stephen Leacock. While much of the humor in the book is not belly laugh funny, it does provide one with a deep satisfaction of reading clever humor from an author who knows how to tickle the funny bone. You do not need to be Canadian to enjoy this wonderful book.

the funniest book i've ever read
Like the heading says, this is the funniest book I've ever read.Leacock was a comic genius and this is his best work.Buy it, read it, love it. ... Read more

Product Description
This original NCL collection brings together Leacock’s comic masterpieces, the many varieties of his remarkable humour. In one story a young man is seized by fear as he attempts to open his first bank account. In another, Lord Ronald, the beloved of Gertrude the Governess, “flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.” In a third, the Mariposa Belle sinks in the shallow waters of Lake Wissanotti.

Completing these timeless comedies are two of Leacock’s own essays on humour.


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Witty, insightful and talented, try not to laugh too hard
Just one story will make you search for more. I borrowed a friend's book to occupy some time while on a trip to Canada, and was searching the Internet looking for more as soon as I got home. His self deprecation in several stories lets you enjoy his witty remarks targeting others as well. He finds humor everywhere and uses language,pace and insight to make you chuckle until you become a public disturbance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A collection of Stephen Leacock's short stories
This is a collection of humorist Stephen Leacock's best short works. There are 34 tales in this 339 page book; most are between 4 to 10 pages long, with the longest being 31 pages. The topics included in this small book vary widely and are in no particular order either chronologically or by subject.

Stephen Leacock was born in Swanmore Eng. in 1869 and lived nearly all of his life in Canada, dying in Toronto in 1944. In his career he won several awards; the Lorne Pierce Medal and the prestigious Governor General's Award. He had the Leacock Medal for Humour established in his name and even had a Canadian postage stamp issued in his honour.

Despite all the good things said about this book and its author, I must admit that I have a concern; the concern being that I didn't really find these stories that funny. Yes, an occasional smile or smirk, but certainly nothing that made me laugh out loud or have tears streaming down my cheeks. On reflection, I began to wonder if my lack of response is a sign of the times we live in; that I somehow misinterpreted what was considered SO funny back at turn of the last century, as being somewhat, well...silly. Humor (or at least it's interpretation) seems to have changed in the past 100 years or so.

I realize that Leacock fans (who probably number in the thousands) will come down hard on me for this review, but I'm simply reporting honestly how this work affected me.

Ray Nicholson




... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:///—The Prophet in Our MidstEminent Authority looked round at the little group of us seated about him at the club. He was telling us, or beginning to tell us, about the outcome of the war. It was a thing we wanted to know. We were listening attentively. We felt that we were "getting something.""I doubt very much," he said, "whether Downing Street realises the enormous power which the Quai d'Orsay has over the Yildiz Kiosk.""So do I," I said, "what is it?"But he hardly noticed the interruption. "You've got to remember," he went on, "that from the point of view of the Yildiz, the Wil- helmstrasse is just a thing of yesterday.""Quite so," I said."Of course," he added, "the Ballplatz is quite different.""Altogether different," I admitted. "Andmind you," he said, "the Ballplatz itself can be largely moved from the Quirinal through the Vatican.""Why of course it can," I agreed, with as much relief in my tone as I could put into it. After all, what simpler way of moving the Ballplatz than that?The Eminent Authority took another sip at his tea, and looked round at us through his spectacles. It was I who was taking on myself to do most of the answering, because it was I who had brought him there and invited the other men to meet him."He's coming round at five," I had said, "do come and have a cup of tea and meet him. He knows more about the European situation and the probable solution than any other man living." Naturally they came gladly. They wanted to know,—as everybody wants to know, —how the war will end. They were just ordinary plain men like myself.I could see that they were a little mystified, perhaps disappointed. They would have liked, just as I would, to ask a few plain questions, such as, can the Italians knock the stuff out of the Au... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Re-reading "It Was Christmas.And do you know where ..."
I've been searching U.S. libraries for years for Leacock's works to relive the laughter of my first reading -- particularly the attack up the parapets by the horde which had to retreat backwards.Can you steer me to copies of these works? I'm just dying to laugh like that again. ... Read more

Product Description
It was finished. Ruin had come. Lord Oxhead sat gazing fixedly at the library fire. Withoutthe wind soughed (or sogged) around the turrets of Oxhead Towersthe seat of the Oxhead family. But the old earl heeded not the sogging of the wind around his seat. He was too absorbed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

good sense of humor required!
This is for those who love that dry English humor. I love this book! It mocks so beautifuly stupidities, naivete, andhuman anxietes. If you like slap stick humor, please look somewhere else.

An acquired taste, but fun satire
This book contains a collection of ironically satirical essays.Satire is not my favorite form of humor, so it took me a few essays to get "into the swing" of the book, but I can say that once I came around to the appropriate frame of reference, I quite enjoyed the book.When reading this book, you must also remember that it was originally published in 1910; the humorous themes of the essays have aged well, but some of the settings have not.

As I read the essays, I kept having the nagging thought that the author's style reminded me of a contemporary author.Once I reached the "How to Make a Million Dollars" essay, it hit me: I would not hesitate to call Stephen Leacock the Dave Barry (Miami columnist and author) of the early 1900s.They both have the same sort of perverse logic to their points of view.Thus, if you can picture Dave Barry writing in the early 1900s, you can get some idea of what reading this book of essays would be like.

A wonderful mixture of comedy, nonsense and compassion
Stephen Leacock was a Canadian author who wrote his works with an optimistic yet realistic view of life.His light-hearted, bubbly diction impressed me all the way through the novel.Each short story was unique and had true-to-life situations and entertaining characters to whom readers of all ages can relate.His stories are full of good advice for everyone from the socially elite, eager-to-please teenager to the hard-working businessman to the overprotective father.Leacock exaggerates in many of his sketches, but that aspect of each story fits in perfectly with the separate ideas he presents. I recommend this novel to anyone who agrees that life should be lived to the absolute fullest, taking all chances and having a good time.As Stephen Leacock says,"Eat what you want.Eat lots of it.Yes, eat too much of it.Eat till you can just stagger across the room with it and prop it up against the sofa."(Leacock Literary 31) ... Read more

Product Description
This file includes: Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich, Behind the Beyond, Frenzied Fiction, Further Foolishness, The Hohenzollerns in America with the Bolsheviks in Berlin and Other Impossibilities, Literary Lapses, Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy, My Discovery of England, Nonsense Novels, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice, Winsome Winnie and Other New Nonsense Novels, The Dawn of Canadian History, and The Mariner of St. Malo (Jacques Cartier). According to Wikipedia: "Stephen Butler Leacock, FRSC (30 December 1869 – 28 March 1944) was a Canadian writer and economist... Early in his career, Leacock turned to fiction, humour, and short reports to supplement (and ultimately exceed) his regular income. His stories, first published in magazines in Canada and the United States and later in novel form, became extremely popular around the world. It was said in 1911 that more people had heard of Stephen Leacock than had heard of Canada. Also, between the years 1915 and 1925, Leacock was the most popular humourist in the English-speaking world. Humorists admire other humorists, and greatly admire other great humorists. So it was that Stephen Leacock, in Toronto, was delighted to read the fresh humor and wit of a young man in New York named Robert Benchley. Leacock opened correspondence with Benchley, encouraging him in his work and importuning him to compile his work into a book. Benchly did so in 1922, and acknowledged the nagging from north of the border.Near the end of his life, the American comedian Jack Benny recounted how he had been introduced to Leacock's writing by Groucho Marx when they were both young vaudeville comedians. Benny acknowledged Leacock's influence and, fifty years after first reading him, still considered Leacock one of his favorite comic writers. He was puzzled as to why Leacock's work was no longer well-known in the United States. [5]During the summer months, Leacock lived at Old Brewery Bay, his summer estate in Orillia, across Lake Simcoe from where he was raised and also bordering Lake Couchiching. A working farm, Old Brewery Bay is now a museum and National Historic Site. Gossip provided by the local barber, Jefferson Short, provided Leacock with the material which would become Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), set in the thinly-disguised Mariposa. Although he wrote learned articles and books related to his field of study, his political theory is now all but forgotten."
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Product Description
Publisher: New York, John Lane Company; London, John Lane; [etc., etc.]Publication date: 1921Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Old romantic and tragic novels
This book should be considered a collection of short novellas. Like reading of cads and bounders,shady lawyers and tragic damsels in distress.. this book has them all. I think that the comic element in these stories is this books saving grace. Reminding one of silent movie hero's and heroines.. dramatic to say the least,funfast read. If you love an old style novel if Dickens appeals to you ... you will love this book ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: Dodd, Mead and companyPublication date: 1922Subjects: Humorous stories, CanadianParodiesFiction / AnthologiesFiction / HumorousFiction / LiteraryFiction / Mystery ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Leacock is one of the best written humor writers ever
I purchased this book for a friend, because I had a vintage copy of it and knew that it was one of my favorite volumes of written humor.Leacock, although not well-known in the US, was the Canadian equivalent of Mark Twain.He was the favorite written humorist of Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, and other comedians of that caliber.So if you like them, you won't go wrong with this volume!

great insight,clever wit and great use of vocabulary
A style all his own, with linguistic skills targeting your funny bone. He finds humor everywhere and shares it with you masterfully. Build your vocabulary and increase your insight into others while laughing so hard you make people wonder what you are reading.

Some sense in Nonsense
Wit is often not associated with the academe. Therefore it is a suprise to see such wit in Stephen Leacock. As a professor of Economics at McGill University in the mid 20th century, Leacock was counted among Canada's greatest humorists.
In the Nonsense Novels, Leacocks unleashes parodies of most literary genres: The Great Detective, the first tale, satirizes Arthur Conan Doyle's Scandal in Bohemia.
There are tales of capers involving gullible women, a desert island landing with an alternate ending, analysis of societal conditions, and some stories that are plain nonsense.
A Hero in Homespun and the Man in Asbetoes are two worth reading; the latter being a farcical exposition on the future of capitalism and scientific advancement - very scary, if it were not so funny.

I was introduced to Leacock while browsing gutenberg.org, and have not been disappointed.
If you feel overwhelmed by the importance attached to triviality today, then you might do well to pick up and read the Nonsense Novels.

Brilliant Humor from 90 Years Ago-- Still Funny & Relevant
Leacock is one of a handful of literary parodists and humorists (Perelman, Benchley, Twain) whose parodies, though more or less a century old, are still laugh-out-loud funny.If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, Leacock's "Maddened by Mystery: or, The Defective Detective" will make you chortle.If you appreciate romance novels, "Gertrude The Governess" will still tickle.Canadian Leacock was a master humorist with a light touch, and an unerring deflator of cliche and presumption.This collection of short pieces will still entertain the sophisticated fan of written humor, and should be in every collection.

*Note: The full text of this book is available online.

Best buy in comic reading ever!
Where do I begin to describe the absolutely astonishing quality of Leacock's work? I first heard of Stephen Leacock when reading a book about the Marx brothers. It seems Groucho was on a train, and happened to pass the room of Jack Benny (who was traveling with them, working on the same vaudeville circuit. Groucho heard Benny screaming with laughter, and popped his head into Benny's room to see what the commotion was. Benny told Groucho that it was a book by Leacock, whom Groucho admitted to not knowing. Benny told Groucho, "It's the funniest stuff I've ever read!" Groucho later bought a copy of the book, loved it as much as Benny, and said that he always looked for anything written by Stephen Leacock.

Okay, but what about his stories? Leacock's stock in trade was the parody of classic literature - stories about humble girls of (unknowingly) noble ancestry, who are engaged to work as servants for title lords, only to fall in love with the son of the mansion are turned into hysterically funny romps, where the lies not in the intentionally funny line, but in carefully crafted twists of standard sentence construction.

A sample, from the above-described story, called "Gertrude the Governess; or Simply Seventeen":

"Young Ronald said nothing; he flung himself from the house, flung himself upon his horse, and rode madly off in all directions."

Leacock treats the classic tale of knighthood (handsome, strong knight declares his love for the gentle maiden of the castle, and she loves him too, though they've never met) to similarly wicked entanglement of story and prose.

"Sorrows of a Super Soul" tells the classic Russian tale of an unrequited love, while "Carolyn's Christmas" the story of the old farmer, his family away(one son in the city, another in prison), his farm mortgaged, and a strange girl happening upon the family on Christmas Eve, with a baby, but no wedding ring. Both of these, and all other stories in this slim book, will have you laughing until you cry.

Buy a copy, get hooked. If Groucho and Jack Benny thought this was the best humor ever, how can it not satisfy you too? ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: History / Canada / General; History / Expeditions ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Leacock on the Origins of Canada
This book was used as volume one of the Chronicles of Canada series, a thirty-two volume set of short, easy-to-read books pertaining to Canada's history and heritage.The Dawn of Canadian History is intended to set the stage for the series, and discusses in a general sense the primordial beginnings of Canada, theories on how the continent was populated by native peoples, the possible accidental visits by the Vikings, and early explorations by the Europeans.Keep in mind that the book was first published in 1914 and therefore contains much dated information.Leacock's opinions also at times reflect those of his contemporaries and are clearly now not acceptable.All in all, though, an interesting little book, worth reading despite its faults, especially if you're into Leacock and want to experience some of his non-humorous writings. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Widely recognized as Canada's finest literary humorist, Stephen Leacock was a prolific author, publishing over sixty books during his lifetime, in addition to countless articles and pamphlets. He was also a devoted correspondent, writing hundreds of letters to friends, relatives, and business associates. Illustrated with several original photographs, "The Letters of Stephen Leacock" brings together over 800 letters, most of them never before published. Together they give a vivid picture of one of the twentieth century's most distinguished men of letters, a man who was honest, compassionate, and committed to his craft. From the brief, unpolished lines he wrote as a boy to his father, to the final letters he wrote before his death, Leacock's correspondence reveals much about the man behind the humour: the devoted son, husband, and father; the distinguished McGill professor; the proud Canadian; the generous uncle; the social critic; and the private citizen consumed and deeply troubled by the two world wars. Fans of Leacock's many books of humour will find glimpses of his trademark wit in letters on subjects ranging from the Scottish penchant for whiskey to the beauty of the west.More than a humorist, Leacock was an intellectual and an educator who wrote serious works on many topics, including political economy, education, and social reform, and many of his strong views on these subjects are laid out plainly in letters to associates and friends. He was also an astute businessman, and was, as letters to numerous publishers show, a writer by profession. As Leacock himself wrote of his letters to a friend and associate, 'We wrote in the plain straighforward way only possible in such an interchange of letters, about what we thought of this new world that seemed to overwhelm us in our old age.' These are the letters of a gentleman, written with charm, grace, and humour, occassionally blunt and assertive in dealings with publishers, but - in keeping with his humour - never mean-spirited or designed to injure. Together, they represent a fascinating collection that will captivate anyone who enjoys Canadian fiction or history. David Staines has spent 15 years bringing together Leacock's letters, many of them from private collections in Britain, the United States, and Canada.His ten chapter introductions place these carefully selected and annotated letters in the context of Leacock's life and work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Whatwehavehereisafailuretounderstand

Like others in this series of presumptive books, MacMillan is long on knowledge, short on understanding and filled with the entertaining opinions of a columnist who is out to advance an idea more than to illuminate a subject.

Leacock was the quintessential Canadian;someone who loves Canada so deeply they cannot resist mocking their own self-absorption in a belief they feel must be in error, despite feeling absolutely justified in their beliefs.Like Americans, Canada was born with the Declaration of Independence on 1776;Canada is descended from the Loyalist faction who fled the United States after 1783 on the belief, "we must be right, or why else would we suffer so much?"

Ever since the arrival of the United Empire Loyalists, Canadian nationalism is a belief that all benefits of the Thirteen Colonies can be gained without the mad excesses of Yankee rum, revolt and revision.Canada never accepted the 'Common Sense' of Thomas Paine;instead the intellectual goal is the pain of "Subdued Sense...if it's all right with you".

Leacock, as MacMillan shows again and again, deflated the temptation of pomposity based on ambition or achievement.'Sunshine Sketches ...' is the story of a small town, one of the richest per capita in Canada in 1912, that Leacock said should not become overly impressed with its brief good fortune.Mariposa is a metaphor for Canada, a warning about excess instead of caution.

In many ways, Leacock's fears and warnings foretold the history of Canada.

Perhaps MacMillan didn't know that Orillia (Leacock's Mariposa) produced some of the first Canadian automobiles, supplied much of the heavy mining equipment and supplies used to develop northern Ontario (ever hear of Carss mackinaws?) and was a prime resort for the wealthy (ever hear of Weir's Folly?).Leacock warned about being too fixated on this early and brief success;just as he cautioned Canada about the perils of the easy wealth produced by the "Dutch Disease" during the first half of the last century.

The book is neither a history nor a biography;instead, it's an assertion of Canadian nationalism.So much the better.These are books written with a point of view, and Canada is better for them even if they are better suited for television docu-dramas than for serious study.

For an American effort at describing the same perils, read 'Babbitt' by Sinclair Lewis.It's the same theme as 'Sunshine Sketches ...", but done without a hint of humour or, as Leacock wrote, without a kindly contemplation of life's incongruities. ... Read more

Product Description
Stephen Leacock resigned from teaching at Upper Canada College in 1899 to pursue graduate studies at Chicago, from which he graduated in 1903, after presenting his thesis dealing with dogmatic opposition to state intervention. Carl Spadoni's discovery of Leacock's long-lost thesis gives readers a unique opportunity to understand the man and re-examine his philosophies. ... Read more

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

witty,insightful, and laugh out loud funny
Just one story will make you search for more. I borrowed a friend's book to occupy some time while on a trip to Canada, and was searching the Internet looking for more as soon as I got home. His self deprecation in several stories lets you enjoy his witty remarks targeting others as well. He finds humor everywhere and uses language,pace and insight to make you chuckle until you become a public disturbance.
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Product Description
1923. Leacock, a Canadian humorist and economist, published a number of serious works in his field as well as in history and biography, but is best known for his collections of satirical essays and short stories. Contents: Over the Footlights: Cast Up by the Sea; The Soul Call; Dead Men's Gold; Oroastus. A Greek Tragedy; The Subcontractor; Historical Drama; The Russian Drama; The Platter of Life; People We Meet in the Movies; The Raft: An Interlude; Other Fancies: First Call for Spring; How I Succeeded in My Business; The Dry Banquet; My Lost Dollar; Radio. A New Form of Trouble; Roughing It in the Bush; Abolishing the Heroine; My Affair with My Landlord; Why I Refuse to Play Golf; The Approach of the Comet; Personal Experiments with the Black Bass; and L'Envoi. The Faded Actor. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. ... Read more

Product Description
"Sir," said the young man in intense excitement, "a mystery has been committed!" ... Read more