Have You Ever Been to an Irishman's Shanty?

At work recently I was taking a professional development course called "Cultural Portraits" from, well, my girlfriend, and the main assignment was to produce either some sort of examination of one's culture or a work philosophy, or a combination thereof.  I actually had done a pretty decent manifesto-like bullet-by-bullet work philosophy the previous semester, so this time I was really stymied for a while.

And then the notion of humor came up...

Ya know, thought I suddenly, perhaps we have a topic after all!

Have You Ever Been to an Irishman's Shanty? A Midwestern Family's Humor Across Eight Generations explores the various humor, both high and low, that makes my family what it really is.  From random lucky pratfalls, across limericks and dirty jokes, through pranks and sight gags, to quips and comebacks and linguistic bastardization, this book covers all the crazy characters and the things that make us smile.  In addition to being illustrated with photos and occasional comic drawings, the piece also is heavily indexed.

As the back cover blurb advises us, Abandon all taste, ye who enter here!