CHIN MUSIC: Tall Talk and Other Talk

Schwartz latest collection of funbustious folk talk is in the form of a minithesaurus, conveniently alphabetized for readers who might want an old way to say ""talkative person"" (busy lip), ""small room"" (not big enough to cuss a cat in), ""stubborn"" (muleiferous), or ""hot day"" (hot enough to fry spit). There are usage examples to clarify, for example, the difference between dudfoozled (""I was just dudfoozled. I was mad enough to bite stumps"") and bumfuzzled (""I was so bumfuzzled I couldn't tell wet from windy""); and he even provides cross references (""Boasts and Brags--see Tall Tales"") for bumfuzzled searchers. But readers won't need this last service, as anyone who picks up the book is likely to whoopity-scoot clear through to the end. And if you can forget that no one can trigger this stuff out like Glen Rounds, you'll find O'Brien's drawings sufficiently shenanigous.