Cocktails & Conversation with Author Ben Yagoda on His New Book “Gobsmacked”
In his new book GOBSMACKED! Ben Yagoda compiles a cheeky collection of various Britishisms that have steadily crept into the modern American lexicon, from the mundane and commonplace (“run-up,” “gone missing”) to the pretentious (why say “queue” when “line” will suffice?) and even some that are downright bonkers (“twee,” “kerfuffle,” and “plonk”). Come for a delightful evening of wordplay as the New Rochelle Public Library Foundation brings author Ben Yagoda back to his hometown to discuss his newest book, Gobsmacked! The British Invasion of American English.
Cocktails & Conversation with Ben Yagoda will take place on December 11th at Alvin & Friends Restaurant (14 Memorial Highway, New Rochelle) from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Tickets cost $60 and include delicious nibbles and two drinks; proceeds benefit the non-profit NRPL Foundation. Tickets can be purchased on line at https://bit.ly/3UGtq8L
Tickets are also available by mail with a check payable to NRPLF sent to New Rochelle Public Library Foundation, 1 Library Plaza, New Rochelle, NY 10801. For more information visit the website at nrplfoundation.org.
Copies of Yagoda’s book will be available for sale and signing by J. Anderson’s Bookstore (96 Chatsworth Avenue, Larchmont). “Gobsmacked” can be pre-ordered using this link: https://square.link/u/olGYnLub
Ben Yagoda has published more than a dozen books (including Will Rogers: A Biography) and his blog, Not One-Off Britishisms, has been visited more than 3 million times. Since 2011, Yagoda has dutifully documented and collected hundreds of British imports on his blog, and in his new book Yagoda splits them up into distinct categories (military slang, food and drink, sports, insults, and other bits and bobs), provides some historical and cultural context for their use, and denotes their level of penetration into American English at the end of each entry. The result is an awfully clever deconstruction of the English language, full stop.
Cocktails & Conversation is one of the NRPL Foundation’s signature events, designed to bring book lovers together. The Cocktails & Conversation series features author discussions moderated by Prof. Amy Bass, Ph.D., NRPL Foundation Board Member, historian and acclaimed author (One Goal: A Coach, A Team and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together).
Ben Yagoda attended New Rochelle High School and Horace Mann School; he graduated from Yale University with a degree in English and later earned an MA in American civilization from the University of Pennsylvania.
Yagoda became a freelance journalist for publications such as The New Leader, The New York Times, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone and worked as a film critic for the Philadelphia Daily News and an editor for Philadelphia and other magazines. He has published more than a dozen books including Will Rogers: A Biography; About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made; When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse; and The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing.
In 2018, Yagoda retired after twenty-five years teaching writing and journalism at the University of Delaware. He currently consults, edits, and works with writers.