From: jespah@carson.u.washington.edu (Kathleen Hunt)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Modern Trivia, was Re: Why I am thrilled with the QPBC
Date: 21 Nov 92 23:04:26 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Nov21.230426.21922
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

> mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto) writes:
[great story about his dad having all sorts of odd questions about
 things, & the book "Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses?"]

Your dad sounds like a man after my own heart, Mark.  

I have good news for you.  There is a burgeoning mini-genre right now of
books of answers to puzzling, irrelevant questions of the kind your dad
loves, so you can have birthday & Xmas presents for him sewn up for the
next 10 years if you really want.  

The "Why Do Dogs..." book is one of an ongoing series of about
5 or 6 books, the "Imponderables" series.  (Let's see:  Why Do Clocks Run
Clockwise? Why Do Fish Sleep? & others)  They're a lot of fun, and are kind
of addictive, but the namby-pamby style and cutesy cartoons are a little
wearing after a while.   In contrast my favorite weird-trivia series is
the "Straight Dope" by Cecil Adams.  He has a couple books out ("The 
Straight Dope" and "More Of The Straight Dope") collected from his
syndicated newspaper column.  But, there hasn't been a new book out in a 
while (I dread to think that the bland Imponderables books may have taken
over his niche).  His writing style is a lot nastier and funnier, IMO, with
a sort of P.J. O'Rourke irreverence.  His books also have a lot more
feedback and disagreements from readers.  (That is, an "Imponderables" book
might say "Some of our readers offered an alternative explanation for the
one-shoe-by-the-road phenomenon," while a Straight Dope book would say
something like "One of the Teeming Millions wrote, "You hare-brained
buffoon!  Your one-shoe explanation was completely cockeyed.")  The Straight
Dope books are also more likely to tackle questions like "Did Catherine the
Great really die from have a horse fall on her when she was trying to
have sex with it?"  whereas Imponderables will stick to questions about
puppies and pigeons.   Actually the more recent Imponderables books seemed
a little better.  Improving with age, maybe.

I have noticed another book out recently, collected from yet another
syndicated newspaper column, that seems to be kind of a cross of Straight
Dope and Imponderables.  I think it is written by a woman but for the
life of me I can't remember her name.

Oh, I just remembered another book called "Why Things Are" that is really
enjoyable.  Same style as the Straight Dope/Imponderables, and also including
the occasional short, fascinating, opinionated essay on The Beatles, or
Creeping Surrealism, or Taxes.  Can't remember this author's name either...

Finally, your dad might also get a kick out of William Poundstone's "Big
Secrets" and "Bigger Secrets", books full of fascinating inside stories
about things someone or other is trying to keep secret (like the formula
for Coke).  Fewer topics are addressed than the lists-of-questions type
books I mentioned above, but he goes really in-depth with each topic,
interviewing all kinds of unnamed Deep-Throatish sources, till you get really
sucked into these fascinating corporate battles, and find yourself 
slavering to know exactly how much lemon flavoring Pepsi does or doesn't
have, and did the real formula for the *original*  Kentucky Fried Chicken 
coating go to the grave with the Colonel or what??  Let me put in a plug here 
for Poundstone -- he writes books on a wide variety of topics and they're 
always magnetically interesting.  There's one called "Labyrinths of 
Reason", about favorite philosophers' puzzles, that still amazes me. 

The problem with reading these books is that I start forgetting exactly
what I read and where I read it.  I'm constantly having conversations with 
people where somebody says, for instance, "Why did Nixon make those tapes in
the first place, anyway?" and I'll say "I read all about that somewhere!"
and I have to go paging through all my little books to find out the answer.
Why on earth don't the Imponderables books have INDEXES?!!  (The Straight
Dope is indexed -- another measure of its superiority.) :-)  

My dream is that someone will compile *all* these books into an enormous
encyclopedia of Useless Trivia, so that you can look up "Pigeons, 
Head-Bobbing" and read the 17 theories on why pigeons bob their heads, with
quotes from several disagreeing ornithologists, and retorts from the Teeming
Millions, and the final answer from this letter to the Straight Dope: 
"Dear Cecil:   We do it because it feels good.  Sincerely, The Pigeons."

Anyway, most large bookstores have a "Trivia" section where you will find
these books.  Sometimes they're in "Reference". 

Happy answer-hunting...

Kathleen

P.S. I love the QPBC too.  Just got a great Virginia Woolf series from
them.  I think almost all the books I buy are from the QPBC.
P.P.S.   A word of caution -- *all* the question-and-answer type books
are sometimes wrong.  Even the Straight Dope.  I guess it's just an
occupational hazard of trying to answer that many strange questions.
P.P.P.S.  *Definitely* send in questions of your own!  The Straight Dope
has answered a couple of mine.  

-- 
Halfway round the course, up spoke the noble rider:  
 "I fear we must fall back, for she's going like a tiger."
Up spoke the noble horse:  "Ride on, my noble master,
  For we're halfway round the course, and now we'll see who's faster."