The clan of the flapdragon and other adventures in etymology
By: by B.M.W. Schrapnel (a.k.a. by Richard McKee) ; [preface by] Richard McKee.
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Tuscaloosa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 183
Subjects: Language and languages -- Humor.
Description: These adventurous essays include lampoons on writing, language, and literature, and the collection is a delightful spoof of much in contemporary culture - especially areas of intellectual pretension. Readers will be entertained by anachronistic allusions, improbable parodies, whimsical etymologies, tongue-in-cheek word play, and stunning purple prose - examples of just some of the liberties Schrapnel takes with the language.

The eccentric Dr. Schrapnel includes a variety of audience reactions in the form of bogus letters from fictional readers, confirming that language and literature are everyone's business.
Notes: Essays which appeared in the author's satirical column "Adventures in etymology," written as if by the fictitious B.M.W. Schrapnel, Ph. D., published in "Oasis, a literary magazine" (Largo, Fla.), 1993-1996.
Includes index.