ANGUISHED ENGLISH: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults Upon Our Language <i> by Richard Lederer (Laurel: $5.95, illustrated)</i>

A haphazard collection of Malaprops and misplaced modifiers, good for a quick laugh on a long plane ride. Some of these verbal pratfalls are decidedly stale, i.e. the one about Eugene O’Neil winning a “Pullet Surprise.” The funniest chapter is devoted to headlines with double meanings their writers never anticipated (SURVIVOR OF SIAMESE TWINS JOINS PARENTS), but a distasteful clutch of “Welfare Bloopers” seems to mock the poor and functionally illiterate. “Anguished English” inaugurates Laurel’s “Intrepid Linguist Library . . . devoted to the idiosyncrasies, oddities and quirks of the English language”; perhaps the next installment will have more to recommend it.