Laughing Gas (novel) Laughing Gas (novel) Laughing Gas is a comic novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 25 September 1936 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 19 November 1936 by Doubleday, Doran, New York. Written in first person narrative, the story is set in Hollywood in the early 1930s (the Depression is mentioned twice) and is, compared to, say, Budd Schulberg's "What Makes Sammy Run?" (1941), a light-hearted and exclusively humorous look at the film industry and in particular at child stars. Both Schulberg and Wodehouse describe the methods of all those would-be
Laughing falcon Laughing falcon The laughing falcon ("Herpetotheres cachinnans"), also called the snake hawk (erroneously, since it is not a hawk), is a medium-sized bird of prey in the falcon family (Falconidae), the only member of the genus Herpetotheres. This Neotropical species is a specialist snake-eater. Its common and scientific names both refer to its distinctive voice. Its English name comes from its loud voice, as does the specific name "cachinnans", Latin for "laughing aloud" or "laughing immoderately". The generic name "Herpetotheres" refers to its preferred food; it is Latinized Ancient Greek, derived from "[h]erpeton" (ἑρπετόν, "reptile") + "therizein" (θερίζειν, "to mow