Holiday Gift Guide: A Chip Off the Old Black by Arthur Black

Arthur Black’s special view of the world is a very Canadian take on the sort of corn-fed folksy humor that has gotten to be quite rare in the age of irony. The titles of his books hint at the way his mind works and his humor runs: Black in the Saddle Again, Pitch Black, Black Tie and Tales and now A Chip Off the Old Black (Harbour Publishing) where he explores the quirks, blunders, triumphs and tribulations of our age.

In a chapter called “Too Dumb to Come in Out of the Rain,” Black tells us that over the last dozen years “648 Americans have been flash barbecued into the afterworld by lightening strikes.”

The thing that connected these 648? More than eight out of ten of them were men. According to Black, it took a while for scientists to figure out why this should be. And what, in the end, proved to be the miraculous difference? Simple, Black writes:

They seek shelter.

You won’t find many women casting for trout, driving a golf ball or shagging pop flies in a thunderstorm because, to put it bluntly, such behavior is dumb.

Men? Well...

If this is the sort of humorously told story that puts the chuckle on your toast, you will enjoy A Chip Off the Old Black and it’s possible that someone on your gift list will, too.