Black is the New Green

Those who have been following Arthur Black's award-winning publishing ventures over the past few years, or remember him from his long-running CBC radio show, Basic Black, will have come to appreciate the hilarious and unique vision of the world through the eyes of Canada's Blackest humourist. No less hilarious is his newest collection of observations and manifestos entitled Black is the New Green.

Black's eye for the absurd is in full focus here. For instance, despite the engaging getup and provocative title, few of these stories actually have anything to do with the environment. Sure, Black offers some words of advice on eating a teaspoonful a day of good healthy soil for longevity and explores the trend towards uber-expensive high fashion grocery bags. However, this is not a tome about carbon footprints besmirching our melting ice caps. Giant hamburgers, on the other hand, are covered herein. You'll also find all you could ever want to know about men's purses, how a chicken upstaged Columbus, social suicide by motor scooter--there's even a sprinkling of flowered urinals--but precious little to make David Suzuki's aorta do backflips. But then, for sheer entertainment value, environmentalism doesn't hold an organic soy candle to a good Arthur Black-ism.

If you're looking for a hearty helping of old-fashioned storytelling exploring Black's trademark territory of the curious and the strange, the twisted and the tainted, look no further than Black is The New Green.