Toasts

by Paul Dickson

Overview

For anyone who will ever face a sea of expectantly raised glasses, or anyone who is fascinated by words and word-play, this rich compendium of toasts for every occasion will prove as entertaining as it is useful. 

The best toasts ever proclaimed (and a few of the worst), funny and sentimental toasts, cynical and heartfelt toasts, justly famous and unjustly forgotten toasts, they're all here in the latest compilation of verbal fun from wordsmith extraordinaire Paul Dickson.

Impossible to put down when browsing and easy to use when looking something up, Toasts one of those books that will never gather dust on the shelf.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780785835691
Publisher:	Chartwell Books
Publication date:	10/23/2017
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Paul Dickson is a freelance writer of more than 65 non-fiction books and numerous newspaper and magazine articles on a variety of subjects from ice cream to baseball to language, including slang, to jokes to Sputnik and the Bonus Army.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

A Brief History of Raised Glasses 5

The Art of Toasting 25

How to Use This Book 29

Toasts and Toasting 30

Age 30

Alliterative 33

America 35

Anniversaries 38

April Fools' Day 39

Babies and Children 40

Beer and Ale 42

Better Times 45

Biblical 47

Birthdays 49

Bulls 50

Celia's Toast (with Variations) 51

Champagne 52

Cheeses 54

Christmas 54

Cinema and Television 59

Cities and Towns 61

Colleges and Universities 65

Curses 67

Death 72

England 74

Excuses for the Glass 75

Expectant Parents 78

Fishing 78

Food 81

Friendship 83

General 88

Graces 94

Guests 100

Halloween 101

Health 102

Hell and Damnation 103

Hints for Effective Toasting with Lessons from History 104

Historic 106

Home 113

Hosts and Hostesses 114

Husbands 116

International 117

Irish 119

Jewish 126

Latin 126

Libations 127

Limericks 135

Love 135

Luck 142

Lust 143

Man and Men 145

Military 148

Mornings After 150

New Year's 152

Odd Customs 156

Old Things 157

Parents 158

Parting 159

Past, Present, and Future 160

Professional and Occupational 161

Prohibition 170

Quotes (Which Are Not Exactly Toasts But Which Belong in a Book like This) 173

Reunions 175

Revelry 176

St. Patrick's Day 180

Scotch 181

A Selected Glossary of Toast and Tipple 187

Self and Selves 192

Shakespearean 193

Skoaling 195

Special Occasions 196

Special People 201

Spirits (Ardent) 204

Sports and Games 207

States 209

Temperance 211

Thanksgiving 212

Toastmaster 214

Tongue Twisters 215

Weddings 217

Wine 223

Wives 227

Woman and Women 228

World's Worst Toasts 230

Acknowledgments 235

Selected Bibliography 237

Internet Resources 243

Editorial Reviews

Helpful to anyone who ever expects to be called on to give a toast.” —Library Journal

From the Publisher