U P D A T E S 2 January 2002 to December 2004 Earlier Updates from March 1997 to October 2001 are archived here. Additions - Changes - Latest Information For the last 2004 entry (9 December), click here. 1 January 2002 A Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year to all my friends and readers and to the nice folks who subscribe to Maledicta 13 or buy Maledicta Press books! 12 May 2002 Happy Mother's Day to all you moms and to all you tightfisted mothers out there. Speaking of which, there are still lots of books for sale here. Still trying to raise some $8,000 to publish the next Maledicta, vol. 13. Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post interviewed me for an article on boxer Mike Tyson's foul mouth. Her article appeared on May 12th and is also archived here. 9 July 2002 I have shut down our mirror Web site in Dublin, Ireland. In order to raise the funds needed to publish Maledicta 13, I have again lowered prices. See Order Form here. GREED, Unlimited: Last week I happened to check Amazon.com's "Marketplace" to see for how much used copies of my books sell -- and almost fell off the chair. The most outrageous outfit trying to peddle my books (used) for incredibly greedy prices is "info5" (= Bookconsignment.com) in Santa Ana, Southern California. I complained to Amazon.com and also sent "info5" e-mails telling them what greedy bastards they are. (Can I be sued for telling the truth?) Here are their two worst outrages: They offer Maledicta 10 for $55.11 (which is available from me, new, for $15.00). They also offer my How Do They Do It? booklet for $69.02 (my price, new, is $4.00). Other used-book peddlers also try to sell used copies of the latter book for more than $20.00. How "info5" arrived at the 11 cents ($55.11) and 2 cents ($69.02) is a sick joke. I feel sorry for book lovers who are stupid enough to pay such outrageous prices. Another greedy outfit that tries to peddle Maledicta 10 for $39.99 is "quality7" (=Trebronics, Inc.) in Atlanta, Georgia. Also on Amazon's "Marketplace." I've earlier exposed such greedy book peddlers in The Electronic Pillary page, section "Hold on to Your MAL Publications -- They're Heirlooms!" It's about the Berkeley, Calif., booksellers who wanted $35.00 for an old and used edition of my Bayrisch-österreichisches Schimpfwörterbuch, which I sell for $12.50 (latest hardbound edition) and $50.00 for Mark Twain's The Mammoth Cod (which I used to sell for as little as $10) they bought from a friend's widow for about $1.00. Still other used-book vultures try to peddle used sets of Maledicta for up to $340.00, which I sell new for $170.00. The greediest book peddler found so far is "Luftmensch" in NYC who wants $100.00 for a used copy of our Allen Walker Read's Classic American Graffiti, which I sell for $7.50 new! Normally, the used-book- and rare-book-peddling vultures wait until the author is dead before they start jacking up their prices astronomically -- but, hey, I'm not dead yet and they already are gouging their customers! May the ghost of Gutenberg rip the balls off such greedy book peddlers! 1 January 2003 Cheapskates, Beware! For years, I've been urging niggardly readers to buy Maledicta and other Maledicta Press books, instead of bumming them from friends or freeloading what's on the Net. My tongue-in-cheek curses -- such as imploring Allah to rip the balls or tits off cheapskates -- have scared several long-time parasites into ordering our publications. One could scare the remaining hordes of tightwads and spongers into spending a few bucks by using crude imprecations ("Buy or Die!"), but thanks to Prof. Joseph Salemi, we can now achieve the same in a classic(al) way, with his Latin poem, sung to Beethoven's Ode to Joy: Si non emis Maledicta Erinyes te strangulent; Membra crassa Cyclopea Culum tuum penetrent! Fulmen Jovis ulciscatur Te sine auxilio; Scrotum tui perforetur Tridenti Neptunio! If you don't buy Maledicta May you face the Furies' stare; May a massive, long-shlonged Cyclops Ram it up your derrière! May Zeus zap you with his lightning As you quake in helpless fear; May your balls be skewered neatly On Poseidon's triple spear! But to all my faithful readers and subscribers and friends, I wish a Healthy, Happy, Successful New Year. 22 July 2003 No news here, except for some minor health problems such as two heart attacks, open-heart surgery, triple bypass, and angioplasty. But I'm back at work, finishing Maledicta 13 to get it out by December. 22 August 2003 I have added the Contents of Maledicta 13 here. 7 September 2003 I have added a sample month of my Insult Calendar here. In order to expose and screw the bloodsucking greedy used-book peddlers who charge outrageous prices for our books (see entry for 9 July 2002, above), I have now made all Maledicta Press books available at Amazon.com. A long interview with the Financial Times Deutschland, in German, is archived here. 18 October 2003 I have added the Bibliography from Maledicta 13 here. If you wish to contact the authors for book orders, etc., let me know and I'll send you their e-mail addresses. 1 December 2003 November was a rotten month for me: Four weeks of murderous "cluster headaches," which set back publication of Maledicta by one month. I've added a sample page (50K) from my out-of-print Bayrisch-österreichisches Schimpfwörterbuch here. Dutch Maledicta: In April, the Center for Scientific Research and Documentation (Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum) of the Dutch Department of Justice (Ministerie van Justitie) published eight articles about cursing, swearing and name-calling. Among the authors are the Dutch maledictologists and lexicographers Dr. Hans Heestermans and Prof. P.G.J. van Sterkenburg. Maledicta and its editor are mentioned in the Preface (Voorwoord). All articles are in Dutch and .pdf format. See Justitiële verkenningen, vol. 29, no. 3, April 2003, "Vloeken, schelden en schimpen" at: http://www.wodc.nl/onderzoeken/onderzoek_jv200303.asp 1 January 2004 Healthwise, 2003 ended as rotten as it began: Suffering about eight weeks from killer "cluster headaches." Because several readers and friends have asked what they are, here's a quick summary. Cluster headaches affect only men, and only 2-3%. They're the worst kind of headaches known, far worse than migraines, and have driven sufferers to ripping out their eyes or to committing suicide to escape the incredible pain. Imagine a 1/4-inch drill boring vertically and continuously into your skull, down through your left eye, and further through your upper and lower jaws. Attacks occur 1 to 4 times a day and last each from 2 to 14 devastating hours. These terrible headaches start out of the blue, after 6 months or a year of painfree time, and stop just as mysteriously as they start. Luckily, last week -- after 20 years of searching for relief -- I finally found medication that stops the pain within 30 to 60 minutes. I'm telling you this not to get sympathy (which I can find in the dictionary between "sodomy" and "syphilis") but to explain why Maledicta 13 will be delayed till February 2004 or so. Daniel Worona, an old friend of mine, has been collecting some 40,000 humorous sayings, proverbs, wisecracks, puns and the like about diet, food, chocolate, eating and related topics for the past 34 years. Samples are here: http://www.danworona.50megs.com Also, during the past 40 years, he's been collecting original, unpublished Spanish-language folklore humor in Spain, Mexico (especially Oaxaca), Central America, and South America. More info: http://www.danworona.bappy.com Versitos Chistosos (Funny Verses) at: http://www.danworona.bappy.com/about.html Dichos Chistosos (Funny Sayings) at: http://www.danworona.bappy.com/custom.html For 2004, I wish all my friends and clients the very best! 6 April 2004 Time to update, but there's not much news. I'm still beset by health and financial woes, thus the publication of Maledicta 13 has been delayed -- one more time -- until late summer or so. The Danes have finally discovered Maledicta! There were two good articles about our publications and my turbulent life in Weekendavisen and Ekstra Bladet, both published in Copenhagen. Read the Danish articles here (W) and here (EB), or see the latest (top) entries for those links in News. Esther Hecht (Jerusalem) interviewed me about a new book on Yiddish Curses and Blessings. Her article is archived here. Oh, yeah: If you haven't received any reply from me to your e-mail, it's because two months ago my PC's hard drive went belly up. Lost lots of stuff. Luckily, all the Maledicta articles and databases are on my trusty Power-Mac. 4 August 2004 In order to raise the funds needed to print and ship Maledicta 13 in winter, I have once more lowered the prices of most books -- for the last time. See Order Form here and buy some already! Note that rip-off book sellers are offering used single volumes for up to $100.00! 22 October 2004 Free book! If you reside in the USA, you are invited to ask for a free copy (free except for $2 shipping expenses) of Osmond Beckwith's novel Vernon. Details and a review are here. Otherwise, no gnus. Dr. Reinhold Aman October 2004 "Please buy my books." Uncle Maledictus October 2004 "Buy or Die!" 9 December 2004 I can no longer accept PayPal payments and have dropped out of their program. There's too much fraud, too many fake PayPal notices and warnings, and they deducted almost as much from your payment as credit card companies do. So screw 'em. It's not worth the hassle. If you have bought Maledicta Press books, I wish you Happy Holidays! If you haven't, click here. For the newest Updates (Jan 2005--) click here. Back to top of page