The Official Handbook of the Muskrat Corner Ladies Garden & Sewer Club, which Also Includes The Official Song Book, Cook Book, Joke Book & Compendulum of Many Helpfull Household Hints..., Edited by Agnes Brewhead

P.J. Kemp was a journalist living in Brigham, Quebec.

This small volume is pretty much what the title says it is, fictionally speaking. In the cookbook section are recipes for Maple Leaf Hash, Vinegar Pie, and Fried Strawberries. An example of the jokes is: “On Lucy McMillan’s first day in school her teacher told her, If you need to go to the washroom raise two fingers. Lucy asked her, How will that help?” And from the household hints section, “If your husband says the gravy is not dark enough, try thickening it with 1 tbs. cocoa instead of flour.” In the official rules governing the club is a note on Special Meetings: “We seldom have time for special meetings, except by accident on the street or in a store, so there is usually not a kworum qworm qwurum enough people present, so no business is discussed or voted on officially.” (This is all sic.)

Women’s institutes have suffered ridicule for almost as long as those institutes have existed. While these organizations are not movers and shakers of society, they undertake many worthwhile projects, which are carried out by people who do the best they can with good intentions. Donn Reed is definitely no Garrison Keillor (of National Public Radio’s Prairie Home Companion) because Reed has neither the sensitivity nor the insight into the hearts of such people, and he has no understanding of what constitutes folk humor. Ventures like The Official Handbook give self-publishing an undeservedly bad name.