Schott's Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany

Schott's Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany PDF Author: Ben Schott
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
ISBN: 9781582344065
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
From the author of the international bestsellers Schott’s Original Miscellany and Schott’s Food and Drink Miscellany comes the third and most playful installment in the series: a miscellanist’s wisdom from the worlds of sports, games, and idling. What other sporting book will explain the rules of elephant polo; the perils of the Cresta Run; the link between crosswords and the devil; the story behind the Nike “swoosh”; or why surfing is the “Sport of Kings” (in Hawaii)? Which other volume will list the seven deadly sins of golf; the secrets of Houdini’s Code; or the myriad personalities of the Pac-Man ghosts? Where else will you stumble across an account of Evel Kneival’s broken bones, a detailing of Mike Tyson’s tattoos, the nicknames for classic poker-hands, or every sporting ailment from jogger’s nipple to housemaid’s knee? You don’t have to be a sports fanatic to enjoy this irresistible volume of factual odds and ends. Schott’s Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany scores big with its fascinating hodge-podge of sports- and activity-related trivia.

Schott's Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany

Schott's Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany PDF Author: Ben Schott
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
ISBN: 9781582344065
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the author of the international bestsellers Schott’s Original Miscellany and Schott’s Food and Drink Miscellany comes the third and most playful installment in the series: a miscellanist’s wisdom from the worlds of sports, games, and idling. What other sporting book will explain the rules of elephant polo; the perils of the Cresta Run; the link between crosswords and the devil; the story behind the Nike “swoosh”; or why surfing is the “Sport of Kings” (in Hawaii)? Which other volume will list the seven deadly sins of golf; the secrets of Houdini’s Code; or the myriad personalities of the Pac-Man ghosts? Where else will you stumble across an account of Evel Kneival’s broken bones, a detailing of Mike Tyson’s tattoos, the nicknames for classic poker-hands, or every sporting ailment from jogger’s nipple to housemaid’s knee? You don’t have to be a sports fanatic to enjoy this irresistible volume of factual odds and ends. Schott’s Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany scores big with its fascinating hodge-podge of sports- and activity-related trivia.

Schott's Original Miscellany

Schott's Original Miscellany PDF Author: Ben Schott
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
ISBN: 9781582343495
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Impossible to read at one sitting, but utterly unputdownable, Schott's Original Miscellany is a unique collection of fabulous trivia. What other book boasts an index that includes shoelace lengths, sign language, and the seven deadly sins; dueling and dwarves; the hair color of Miss America and the Hampton Court maze? Where else can you find, packed onto one page, the names of golf strokes, a history of the Hat Tax, cricketing dismissals, nouns of assemblage, an unofficial motto of the US Postal Service, and the flag of Guadeloupe? Where else but Schott's Original Miscellany will you stumble across John Lennon's cat, the supplier of bagpipes to the Queen, the labors of Hercules, and the brutal methods of murder encountered by Miss Marple? A book like no other, Schott's Original Miscellany is entertaining, informative, unpredictable, and utterly addictive.

Schott's Quintessential Miscellany

Schott's Quintessential Miscellany PDF Author: Ben Schott
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
ISBN: 9781408815779
Category : Handbooks, vade-mecums, etc
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Introducing the all-new, indispensable collection of necessary trivia, uncommon knowledge, and vital irrelevance from Schott--the inventor of the Miscellany genre.

Schottenfreude

Schottenfreude PDF Author: Ben Schott
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 039916670X
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
Schottenfreude is a unique, must-have dictionary, complete with newly coined words that explore the idiosyncrasies of life as only the German language can. Ever thought, There should be a German word for that? Well, thanks to the brilliantly original mind behind Schott’s Original Miscellany, now there is. In what other language but German could you construct le mot juste for a secret love of bad foods, the inability to remember jokes, Sunday-afternoon depression, the urge to yawn, the glee of gossip, reassuring your hairdresser, delight at the changing of the seasons, the urge to hoard, or the ineffable pleasure of a cold pillow? A beguiling, ideal gift book for the Gelehrte or anyone on your list—just beware of rapidly expanding (and potentially incomprehensible) vocabularies.

Schott's Sporting, Gaming & Idling Miscellany

Schott's Sporting, Gaming & Idling Miscellany PDF Author: Ben Schott
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9780747569244
Category : Sports
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
What other sporting book will explain the rules of elephant polo; the perils of the Cresta Run; the intricacies of the Palio; the breathtaking anties of Kabaddi; or why surfing is the 'Sport of Kings'? Which other volume will inform you of the importance of snooker to nuns; the correct temperature of a 'hot bath'; the words.

Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists

Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists PDF Author: James Geary
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1596917881
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
Both an expert and a collector, James Geary has devoted his life to aphorisms-and the last few years to organizing, indexing, and even translating them. The result is Geary's Guide, featuring aphorists like Voltaire, Twain, Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Woody Allen, Muhammad Ali, Emily Dickinson, and Mae West, as well as international practitioners appearing in English for the first time. But it is more than just a conventional anthology. It is also an encyclopedia, containing brief biographies of each author in addition to a selection of his or her aphorisms. The book is a field guide, too, with aphorists organized into eight different "species," such as Comics, Critics & Satirists; Icons & Iconoclasts; and Painters & Poets. The book's two indexes-by author and by subject-make it easily searchable, while its unique organizational structure and Geary's lively biographical entries set it apart from all previous reference works. A perfect follow-up to Geary's New York Times bestseller The World in a Phrase, Geary's Guide is eminently suitable for browsing or for sustained reading. A comprehensive guide to our most intimate, idiosyncratic literary form, the book is an indispensable tool for writers and public speakers as well as essential reading for all language lovers.

Lore of the Wild

Lore of the Wild PDF Author: Claire Cock-Starkey
Publisher:
ISBN: 0711260710
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
Delves into nature folklore from around the world in six topical categories, featuring for each category one traditional tale and extensive ancient lore about that topic.

Shite's Unoriginal Miscellany

Shite's Unoriginal Miscellany PDF Author: A. Parody
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
ISBN: 9781843170815
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description


Penguins, Pineapples & Pangolins

Penguins, Pineapples & Pangolins PDF Author: Claire Cock-Starkey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780712356367
Category : Exotic animals
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In these modern times knowledge is at our fingertips and it can sometimes feel as if there is nothing new to discover. The awe and excitement from that moment has been lost because these objects and experiences have become ordinary to us. But if we travel back in time just a few hundred years, adventurers were exploring the world during a period when most people rarely travelled further than their nearest market town. Penguins, Pineapples and Pangolins captures the wonderment these intrepid explorers felt as they struggled to record their new experiences. The eyewitness accounts in this collection reveal the reactions and thoughts of Europeans as they visited new places, tasted new foods and encountered strange animals, peoples and plants for the very first time.

When Computers Were Human

When Computers Were Human PDF Author: David Alan Grier
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400849365
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term "computer" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology. Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science. His grandmother's casual remark, "I wish I'd used my calculus," hinted at a career deferred and an education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like many highly educated women of her generation, she studied to become a human computer because nothing else would offer her a place in the scientific world. The book begins with the return of Halley's comet in 1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit. In between, Grier tells us about the surveyors of the French Revolution, describes the calculating machines of Charles Babbage, and guides the reader through the Great Depression to marvel at the giant computing room of the Works Progress Administration. When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research calculation in the hope that they might be part of the scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded by a new electronic machine that took the place and the name of those who were, once, the computers.