Literally Speaking

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The new preface for the Literally Speaking books, written by Richard Lederer, Ph.D. will be in the next edition(s) of Literally Speaking.

Preface

What's black and white and red [read] all over?

A newspaper.

Almost certainly you are familiar with that riddle, and the first time you heard it you may have been around six years old. I hazard that guess because millions of English-speaking children around the world learn the "black and white" riddle at an early age. And the riddle is so popular that it has inspired many answers beyond a newspaper. Nowadays a sunburned penguin, a zebra with diaper rash, a panda with measles, and a nun who's spilled ketchup on herself are also black and white and red all over.

Such riddles represent the child's first attempts to put into memorable form his or her pleasure in discovering that the same sound can suggest two or more diverse meanings and, sometimes, spellings. Unlike the physical world, in which two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time, in the world of language two or more meanings can contemporaneously cavort in the same verbal space.

That is just what Jennifer Hughes's books are all about -- the delight in messing around with words, the joy in discovering multiple meanings that grin out from behind a common expression. Just wait till you see what the author can do with the likes of fast food, on the house, cattle call, fantasy football, illegal, paradox, organ transplant, and red eye. And wait till you see how Jennifer's wordplay is enhanced by her brother Daniel's audio-visionary illustrations.

So let's get to wit -- a punderful tour de farce with punslinger Jennifer Hughes, who is about to demonstrate that the pun is mightier than the sword, and sometimes a lot sharper. I, her pun pal, guarantee that you're in for a rewording experience.

-- Richard Lederer

International Punster of the Year

author of Anguished English and Get Thee to a Punnery

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