Certain classic elements make a humor column irresistible. Workplace humiliation, weird food, rotten vacations, cats getting rubdowns, sex machines, raging self-delusion, enraged babies, at-risk squirrels, and of course pitiful date fantasies with Madonna and Katarina Witt—pure catnip to the modern reader. At least, that is, if you judge by the regular readers of Eric Broder’s “The Great Indoors” newspaper column.
Since 1987, Eric Broder has been captivating and even astonishing readers of Cleveland’s alternative weeklies (the Free Times and the Edition) with just such intimate and rarely believable details from his own remarkable life.
And he has done it with remarkable style. In fact, Broder’s writing style has been said to recall an unholy combination of Dave Barry, Barry White, Dr. Laura, Super Joe Charboneau, Walt Disney, and former Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Jack Lambert.
This book, which collects the very best of Broder’s columns from the period 1987–1996, is a treasure sure to be cherished throughout the first years of the next millenium. Or at least to be left in the bathroom until it gets too mildewed to pick up. Either way, it will change your life.
