The crackpot staff at the Bathroom Readers’ Institute has scoured the worlds of pop culture, politics, sports, history, and more to bring you Slightly Irregular, the 17th all-new edition in the best-selling series. As always, the articles are divided by length for your sitting convenience. So turn thine eyes away from the shampoo bottle, O bathroom reader, and let Uncle John pepper your brain with these absorbing articles…Women in spaceThe origin of Kung FuThe CIA’s secret coupThe great windshield epidemicSpider eggs in the brain, and other urban legendsWhat went down at WoodstockFreedom of McSpeechThe curse of MacbethHow to kill a zombieThat ’70s bathroomAnd much, much more!

    More than 500 pages of great stories, fascinating facts, and fun quizzes await you. Read about… * Philosophers who fought with fireplace pokers* “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!”* Where are they now—the Goths* The golden age of wife-selling* History’s most horrible dentist award* The French monks who invented tennis* Women of the Gold RushAnd much, much more!

    Condensed Knowledge is a mouthwatering mix of intriguing facts, lucid explanations, and mind-blowing theories that will satisfy even the hungriest mind!Ingredients include:5 tiny nations that get no respect • 4 civilizations nobody remembers • 5 classics written under the influence • 4 things your boss has in common with slime mold • 3 schools of thought that will impress the opposite sex • 4 things Einstein got wrong • 5 classical tunes you know from the movies • 3 famous studies that would be illegal today • 2 religious mysteries solved by chemistry • 5 scandals that rocked art, and much more ...

     Meticulously compiled by two crossword professionals with a combined fifty years in the field and based on a massive analysis of current crosswords, there has never been a crossword dictionary with the breadth, depth, and currency of this one. From Jim Carrey to Sister Carrie, Homer Simpson to Homer’s Iliad, the wide-ranging entries include 500,000+ synonyms, 3,000+ literary works, 3,000+ films, 20,000+ famous people from all fields, and more than 50,000 fill-in-the-blank clues so popular in today’s crosswords.Featuring an introduction by New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz, The Million Word Crossword Dictionary makes every other crossword dictionary obsolete.This updated edition offers thousands of new entries, including slang terms; brand names; celebrity names; and the latest films, novelists’ works, sports Hall of Famers, automobile models, and more. The new, larger type size makes finding the answers easier than ever.

    This book is full of interesting insights, amazing anecdotes, and trashy tidbits about the lives, times, and issues of each president. Topics include: The Men — Their Personalities, Performance, Virtues, and Vices; Presidential Firsts and Lasts; Sibling Rivalry — Presidential Brothers and Sisters in the News; Health Secrets of the Chief Executives; Close Calls — Assassination Attempts; The Presidency as Depicted in Books, Movies, the Media, and Monuments; and much more. Readers learn about the oldest sitting president (Reagan at 77); the tiniest president (5'4" James Madison, who weighed less than 100 pounds); and the special status of 1841 (the only year when three separate men all served as president).

    . . Of Perfectly Useless Information comes another treasure trove of extraordinary facts and mind-boggling trivia. Whether you're trying to show off in front of your coworkers around the water cooler, hoping to impress a member of the opposite sex with your wide range of knowledge, or just looking to pass the time on the toilet, This Book . . . Of More Perfectly Useless Information is for you.From science (ocean waves can travel as fast as a jet plane) to culture (82 percent of the Beatles' music was about love) to gossip (Uma Thurman once washed dishes for a living), This Book has something for every mood. It's so addictive, you just might never put it down!

    The ever-accommodating Uncle John has responded to this shameless praise by flushing out the all-time best and most hilarious quotes to form this cunning compilation. Highlights include Five Things You Should Never Do ("Never test the depth of a river with both feet"), Seven Classic Shakespearean Insults ("Thy food is such as hath been belch'd on by infected lungs"), and pithy rock talk from the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Neil Young, and Frank Zappa ("Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read.").

    But honestly, how cool is it to find out that... ? There is a place in Maryland called Monkey's Eyebrow ? Giving yellow flowers is a sign of bad luck in Russia ? One brow wrinkle is the result of 200,000 frowns ? Paper can be made from asparagus This is the book that will also tell you... ? The meaning of 'mageirocophobia' ? Where it is illegal to kill a butterfly ? Huckleberry Finn's remedy for warts ? What bodily fluid the Romans used as a hair treatment And much, much more!

    Schott's Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany scores big with its fascinating hodge-podge of sports- and activity-related trivia.

    For centuries, the teachings (Torah means "teaching") contained in this sacred 3,500-year-old document have been read aloud in the synagogue and studied privately by those seeking to extract from it meaningful life lessons. Maintaining the sanctity of the Torah scroll is of high priority in Jewish tradition, and to achieve that end many laws have been introduced and customs established. In addition, numerous requirements relating to the writing of the Torah scroll and the reading of the scroll in the synagogue have evolved over time. Following the "why" format he introduced in The Jewish Book of Why, in this volume Rabbi Alfred J. Kolatch addresses hundreds of questions about the Torah rites and rituals that are followed today. He also traces the origins of the Torah and explains the different methods of interpretation and analysis that are used in its study. From why Mount Sinai was chosen as the site of the Revelation, to why a Torah scroll must be written on parchment with a quill, to why non-Jews are permitted to handle a Torah scroll, Rabbi Kolatch explores a wide range of fascinating issues simply, concisely, and straightforwardly. As in his other best-selling books, he makes the information both crystal clear for the layman and reflective of the attitudes and practices of Jews of all denominations. This title was previously issued as This Is the Torah.

    It includes what motherhood was like in ancient Greece and Rome, Victorian England, the Middle Ages, and even prehistoric cave-dwelling days; tributes to mothers, such as poems, literature, Whistler's Mother, and the Statue of Liberty; differences in motherhood across various cultures, including Eskimo, Jewish, African, Irish, Latin; great motherly advice in notable quotes and what famous and ordinary people learned from their moms; and motherly advice that turned out to be wrong.It's all here — political moms, singing moms, animal moms, single moms, Elvis's mom, and the Mom Halls of Fame and Shame — written in a breezy, information-packed style perfect for browsing over a nice cup of tea.

    More than 6,500 entries provide a guide to the wealth of characters created by writers in English — from the Wife of Bath to Bertie Wooster, from Tom Sawyer to Harry Potter. New features include concise biographies of the authors, entertaining essays on such topics as “The Detective in Fiction” and “The Characters of Charles Dickens,” and an appendix of literary awards.

    Integral to all this are the ways in which ancient Israel was shaped by the monarchy, the Babylonian exile, and the dispersions of Judeans and the ways in which Israel conceptualized and interacted with the divine-Yahweh as well as other deities.

    "And chances are you'd be wrong. Really! Amazing new theories born of cutting edge technology have forced scholars to revise and shatter accepted facts and cherished beliefs, including those in this meticulously researched, lavishly illustrated oversize book. The result? Stories more compelling than any fiction you could read! Dazzling maps, sidebars and photographs add to the wonder of discovering new information on subjects as varied as how meat eating led to monogamy, how mosquitoes brought about the fall of the Roman Empire, the secret weapon of World War II, the bizarre travels of Adolf Hitler's bones, the truth about Noah's flood, and much more. Perfect for students and history buffs, this book runs the gamut of historical fact and fiction from the origins of man to death and disaster--a more exciting read than any novel.

    In the tradition of Uncle John's Bathroom Readers, we provide a compendium of interesting stories about the culture, people, places, history and folklore of Texas. Topics will include history, entertainment, politics, sports, geography, famous and infamous sons and daughters

    

    Collector's Encyclopedia of Electric Christmas Lighting is a double-size volume that showcases the transition of Christmas lighting from the 1890s into the 1960s -- everything from the first hand-blown lights used by an associate of Thomas Edison right up through the heyday of the Christmas lighting industry of the 1950s, when many companies were competing for an ever-growing post-war market. Shown are the unique design graphics used on the lighting set boxes of the 1920s and 1930s. Rare and unique figural lights are displayed. A vast representation of window candelabras and door wreaths is portrayed. The transition of wall hangings from the early plaster Santa heads of the 1920s to the intricate vinylite pieces of the 1950s is shown. Bubble lights and matchless stars are portrayed in their full glory. The wonders of Christmas motion lamps and other odd and unique Christmas lighting pieces are explored. This book makes a great Christmas gift, but is also the ideal present year-round for Christmas lighting lovers everywhere. 2005 values.