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December 05, 2001.
Bucks man admits attacking house; must go to Florida.
Rating: 5
If you like words and aren't opposed to humor, this book will have you laughing your brains out within the first 5 minutes. Not every headline is funny to everyone, but there are so many in here that no matter what your style is, you will be laughing and you will be enjoying it. The absurdity of everyday life has never been so enjoyable. Yay for Jay!
December 19, 1998.
You need this book-- 10 isn't a high enough rating....
Rating: 5
When I first bought this book, I was expecting a few good laughs... what I got was amazing. I cracked open the book and cracked a grin, a few pages later I was chuckling, a couple misprints later, howling... after about five minutes with this, I was reduced to nearly to tears with sides so sore and so out of breath, I was worried I had to stop before I got a hernia or a heart attack, but I couldn't. You cannot set this book down willingly, and it would take a major nuclear war to get me to part with it in the middle. Still, I don't recommend taking this out in public-- you'll be laughing and twitching like you were insane. I loaned it to a friend of mine one day... he got kicked out of study hall for laughing too hard.
With headlines like "Dead man found in cemetary", "Mimes banned for abusive language" and "USPS begins program to help 'stamp out literacy'" you can see what I mean here. And that's just the tip of the iceberg-- these aren't even the best ones in the book. Sure, you can't give Leno all the credit (that goes to the many, many editors across the world who screwed up) but his observations on many of these articles were hilarious. Once you have this book, you just begin to wonder how you ever survived without it.
This is probably the funniest book I ever read--even over Dave Barry's. Somehow, a 10 doesn't seem adequate to describe it.
One last note to parents, though: don't let your young kids see this book... some of the misprints are ones that get a little blue.
December 27, 2007.
Terrible!.
Rating: 1
There were so many errors. The facts were lame. I almost fell asleep reading the first page! Write a good book next time. If I could I would mark this a 0!
December 31, 2005.
These Stats & Facts Peaked My Interest..
Rating: 3
I found this to be a most interesting book, full of stats and facts of a war of major proportions. There were sixty-one countries involved, which included seventy-five percent of the world's population at that time. The dollar cost of the total expenditures was at least $1,600,000,000,000.
There were fifty-five million fatalities including civilian and military. Forty-four million were from the Allied forces, with eleven million Axis killed. In one battle, at Iwo Jima, the bloodiest engagement in Marine Corps history, only about two hundred out of twenty-two thousand Japanese soldiers survived. Twenty-seven Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to returning U. S. Marines, the most for one battle. There is a new movie soon to be released about this historic event which prompted the famous photograph, taken on the spur of the moment, of the three Marines raising an American flag on Mount Suribachi in the midst of that battle. 'Flags of Our Fathers' will show this engagement from the USA side with its victory, while another major film, 'Lamps Before the Wind,' will portray the battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese side. These two screenplays by the same production company are attempting to show that this particular part of World War II was mainly a 'clash of cultures.'
Of American troops, there were 292,000 military personnel killed in action and an additional 671,000 wounded in action. There were fifty-nine thousand American aircraft lost; military vessels lost were one hundred fifty-seven, while 866 merchant ships were destroyed by the enemy. At peak strength, these countries had in service: British Empire & Commonwealth, 8.7 million; China, 5 million; Germany, 11 million; Japan, 7.1 million; USA, 12.2 million; and USSR, 12.5 million.
Of the U.S. military, 61.2 percent had been drafted, while 38.8 were volunteers. Seventy-three percent of the 16 million troops total, from 1941-45, served overseas; the average time being 16.2 months abroad. There were 350,000 women in military service. About 10,000 dogs were trained for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard throughout the war. Scout and messenger man-dog teams were attached to units with reconnaissance, combat and security patrols and for communication purposes. A brown bear adopted as a mascot actually helped to carry ammunition at Monte Cassino in 1944; he lived another twenty years and died in the Edinburgh Zoo in 1964.
The GI average age was twenty-six years. The youngest U.S. serviceman was twelve years old and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age, after he was wounded in combat. The average length of service of the U.S. military was thirty-three months, half of that spent overseas. Enlisted men were paid $72 per month, while officers earned $204 each month.
Some of these most-interesting facts may not seem so strange, but they are indeed fascinating. The war ended on May 8, 1945 in Europe and August 15, 1945, in Japan. This was the most destructive war in history. Its size and complexity were so great that even today historians can't agree on all of the facts. Some mark the beginning of the war at September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, while many believe that it started eight years earlier on September 18, 1931, when Japan invaded Manchuria. They would have been two separate wars had not the other countries joined in and it became the Allies against Axis. Extreme turmoil made precise recordkeeping impossible for some governments, some lost control of the data, while others manipulated it for political purposes.
More than a global conflict, this war was the catalyst for many of the technological, economic and social fundamentals which today influence our lives. By all reports, it was the bloodiest, costliest conflict in world history and it drastically altered the world's balance of power. There was a total of 110 million people mobilized for military service from 1939 to 1945. The number of baby boomers born during the eighteen years following this war was a whopping 3.4 million.
December 10, 2004.
Bad.
Rating: 1
This book is a waste of money. Not only does it contain numerous spelling errors, it also is historically inaccurate in several passages which leads me to be suspicious of the accuracy of the rest of the book. Although some of the "facts" may seem interesting, the factual errors are too numerous to count.
December 18, 2002.
Not worth the paper its printed on..
Rating: 1
I'd rate this a zero except that the system won't allow it.
"Strange and Fascinating Facts" - my wife gave it to me for my birthday since I'm a WWII historian and the title sounds good.
It's laid out alphabetically like a dictionary. As such when they got to the V's it appears the authors needed filler; so we have "Van Dyke, Dick" a comedian actor who spent two years in the "Army Air Force" (sic) in WWII. This is an example of their idea of a "strange" and/or "fascinating" fact. Doesn't even say where he was or what he did. Now if it said something like he was a waist gunner on a B-17 and flew 23 missions over Germany then maybe (?) it could qualify for being fascinating.
Please don't waste your money; I'm sorry my wife wasted ours.
December 07, 2002.
Light Reading.
Rating: 3
This is a fun book just to flip though. I did notice a few errors but I do not think my knowledge of the events would rate as expert enough to come up with 130. The Penguin dictionary of the third Reich is better. Get this book for what it is, a time killer or help with trivial pursuit.
December 13, 2007.
Brought Back Old Memories.
Rating: 5
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. Mr. Grabowksi's choice of subject matter made the book interesting, and the "now" photography is beautiful. How lovely were Superior and Euclid Avenues in the past; modern structures today, in my opinion, pale against the architecture of the old mansions... I enjoyed the glimpse of seeing how people dressed and where they shopped. When is the last time you've been in a "dry goods" store? With a spot on the street to tether your horse? This is a must-have piece of history for Clevelanders and history buffs alike.
December 30, 2007.
History Through Architecture.
Rating: 5
John J. Grabowski is synonymous with chronicling the history of Cleveland as co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History and writing other Books on various aspects of the city.
Working on this project with Diane Ewart Grabowski has yielded a unique view of the city through its architecture from the dawning of the 20th Century to the beginning of the 21st Century.
Using archival photographs from back then and through commissioned works now, the focus is on the downtown area and some residential neighborhoods. There is text that accompanies the various photographs that adds valuable insight on the city.
What makes the book especially interesting is a person can literally "map out" a walking tour of the portions of the city chronicled to get an even better appreciation on how some areas have had remarkable change, while others have roughly remained the same.
While the book should be of particular interest to northeast Ohio residents and schools, Cleveland Then and Now is a history of the visions of developers & political leaders and - most importantly - the people who made the structures teem with activity during work hours and in the neighborhoods with family & friends.
December 18, 2007.
Great Gift.
Rating: 5
This is a wonderful gift for anyone from the Cleveland area as it goes into so many fascinating developments of the region over time.
December 11, 2005.
Fascinating picto-history timeline perspective of Cleveland!.
Rating: 5
I've been in Cleveland now for about 10 years, having moved here permanently to be with my wife. I'm always learning new things about this interesting and often vexing area. Even though I don't especially like living in the Cleveland/NE Ohio area today (this area has been hit hard economically, and it shows), this book has enabled me to learn much more about the glory, grit, and history of this interesting American city, in words and pictures. Cleveland proper was once the 5th largest American city, and the grandiosity and urban landscape and feel has been captured perfectly with the many turn of the century black & white classic photos of the downtown area, or 'Millionaires Row', just to name 2 geographical areas cited in this book! The 'side by side' juxtaposition of many of the classic 'then' pictures to the 'now' pictures, with many structures and/or buildings still standing, is eerily fascinating to say the least. If you live in NE Ohio, or go there often, this book is a MUST. You won't be able to put it down, and you will be mesmerized by Cleveland's humble industrial beginnings that helped mold NE Ohio into what it has become today! Also, looking at all the photos of people that existed 100 years ago makes you feel your own mortality as well. What is considered 'modern' today will be 'classic' or 'retro' tomorrow!
December 08, 2004.
Really opened my eyes!.
Rating: 5
After seeing this book sitting on a coffee table at the local Crate&Barrel in Cleveland, I was absolutely drawn into the pictures of what Cleveland, my hometown, used to look like. I never realized the transformation the "Comeback City" had made over the years. Seeing the early construction of Terminal Tower and pictures including Millionaire's Row, Public Square, The Gateway, The Mall and the Lakefront changed my opinion of what our downtown actually contains. Seeing the age of what some remaining buildings in downtown showed how historic Cleveland is, and made me want to go downtown and explore. After doing that, I saw so many new things that I never knew were in Cleveland. I strongly suggest this book to anyone who loves Cleveland or would like to find out more about the history of the "Comeback City." One of the best coffee table Books you will ever find! The other six Books in the series (New York, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, St. Louis and Los Angeles) are just as amazing and I strongly encourage everyone to read them all!
December 27, 2006.
George, Billy, Reggie, Thurman and more.
Rating: 3
"October Men" was one of a spate of Books that came out in time for the New York Yankees' 100th anniversary. This time though, its focus is on another milestone -- the Bronx Bombers' 1978 championship run, especially their comback from 14 games out to win the American League East title.
Roger Kahn ("The Boys of Summer") brings first-hand observations, strong research and a love of both sports and history to the batter's box. Kahn's insights into the insecurities of the key players are intriguing. He raises the key point that the troubled childhoods of Yankees like Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson and Bucky Dent both gnawed at these baseball fixtures and provided a fuel for their success.
Kahn's eye for the sensitivities of these and other tough guys of the era gives the book its charm. He helps you both shake your head at their excesses and understand where they come from. (And he smartly indicates just how much Ron Guidry, the quiet pitcher who went 25-3 in '78 was a stable and stabilizing force during the team's roller-coaster year.)
Where "October Men" bogs down is in the style. Kahn spends nearly half the book on the 1977 campaign. While the previous season, Reggie Jackson's first in pinstripes, sets the tone for the soap opera that followed the next year, it's not the main course. Kahn also spends too much time with extraneous insights about his friendships with Yankee execs George Steinbrenner and Al Rosen, troubles with short-sighted editors during his sportswriter years, and jabs at the writing style of fellow sportswriter Murray Chass.
Get past Kahn's asides, and you find a book that is enjoyable.
December 24, 2005.
MUCH DETAIL.
Rating: 4
THID BOOK IS ABOUT THE NEW YORK YANKEES 1978 SEASON. ROGER KAHN DOES A GOOD JOB OF DESCRIBING THE EVENTS WHICH LEAD UP TO THE ASTONISHING COMEBACK FROM NOWHERE TO WIN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE PENNANT IN A PLAYOFF GAME FROM THE BOSTON REDSOX. MUCH DETAIL AND TIME IS PUT TOGETHER IN THIS ENTERTAINING READ FROM THE MAN WHO GAVE US THE BOYS OF SUMMER. I ENJOYED THIS BOOK BUT FOUND IT OVER LONG AND BORING AT TIMES. OVERALL I DID LIKE IT AND RECOMMEND IT FOR ALL YANKEE FANS. BUT A BOOK OF PAIN FOR REDSOX FANS.
December 03, 2005.
Collision At Home.
Rating: 4
Roger Kahn writes a book about the 1976-1978 Yankee Baseball seasons. The book is a mixture of parallel biographies of Billy Martin,George Steinbrenner and Reggie Jackson. Kahn gives a good primer and sets up the story well. For the non New York baseball fan he explains well the Brooklyn Dodger, New York Giant legacy and shows the New York Yankee rivarly with them.
The book might have been better if the entire focus was on the dyanmics of Billy, George and Reggie. Those characters had everything and reflected the currents of the 1970's. There was racism,big business, high salaries,large ego's .Instead Kahn detracts from the bio angle by digressing about New York Giant managers of 1905 !
Kahn does not appear to be a Yankee fan at least in terms of his writing . He gives an objective look of the Yankees. In terms of dealing with the Red Sox swoon this book was written before last years' Yankee debacle . Kanh does not mercifully (and luckily in view of last years result) beat up the Red Sox. Kahn is a bit of a Billy basher and he does not mention once the Howie Spira -Dave Winfield scandal at all.This led to George's expulsion but Kahn does not find the room to mention this fact. In fact he praises the modern George Steinbreener.
Kahn appears to be the most objective about Reggie . He praises the feats but shows the ego of the man. If you are a baseball fan you will probably enjoy this book. If you are a Met fan you should read this book.But if you are a Billy Martin guy you may think the writing is somewhat biased.
Since 25 years have past this reviewer wished Kahn was a little more objective about Billy Martin and George.
December 26, 2005.
Distractions? yes. A waste of time? Certainly not....
Rating: 4
Yes, Kahn gets off topic; yes, it takes neraly 200 pages to get to the 1978 New York Yankees; and yes, the final 150 pages of the book are peppered with Kahn's customary "Look who I knew..." But, altogether, I found this book quite a page turner and surprisingly quick read. As promised, Martin, Steinbrenner and Jackson provide fireworks throughout the text, but so do, for example, the pitching trio of Sparky, Goose and Catfish. There are fact errors (like Kahn's 'Doc Ellis' and 'Dock Ellis'), and the author does interject with his own boasting a bit too often, but I found it read similar to Jeff Pearlman's "The Bad Guys Won" - the story of the '86 Mets, which is perhaps THE MOST underrated baseball book in print.
December 02, 2004.
Hasn't this been done before?.
Rating: 3
The book itself is a great read but the problem is this topic was already done better in Sparky Lyle's Bronx Zoo and Graig Nettles' Balls (one of the most underrated baseball Books ever). Plus from the subtitle I thought it would only be about that crazy 1978 season but it takes 190 pages to get the reader there.
Was the stuff on the origins of the Yankees really necessary to get to 1978?
I did like the profiles of George (learned he's into poetry...who knew?), Billy Martin (came from a broken home...now there's a surprise...NOT!) and Reggie Jackson (never remarried after his divorce).
Anyway, somehow given the fact that two excellent Books on the '70s NYY came out around the same time, I don't get why a third is necessary over 25 years later. Personally, I'm now more interested in that Buster Olney book on the Torre dynasty Yankees and what made them tick.
December 23, 2005.
Unexpected Results of a Marital Tontine and a Trio Tango!.
Rating: 5
Fans of P.G. Wodehouse often refer to Jeeves as a butler, but as Bertie Wooster reminds us, Jeeves is actually a gentleman's gentleman, a valet. But on occasion, Jeeves is pressed into service as a butler, and performs quite well.
Imagine the surprise that many P.G. Wodehouse fans have when they open The Butler Did It and find that the butler in question is a Mr. Augustus Keggs, the English butler for one J.J. Bunyan, an American multimillionaire. But this Keggs is a worthy character who fans of Jeeves will find to be very rewarding.
The book has one of the most intriguing plots in all of the Wodehouse novels. As the story opens, it is the night of September tenth, 1929, just before the collapse of the American stock market. Bunyan is entertaining a group of bored millionaires who are having a hard time deciding how to spend the money they are raking in. Among his guests is Mortimer Bayliss, his art curator, who cannot help but want to stir up the philistines. Bayliss proposes that the men each put up $50,000 with the proceeds of the tontine to go to the last of their sons to marry. Naturally, they have to keep the whole matter a secret or deny themselves the possibility of ever having grandchildren.
The book then glides forward in time to the mid 1950s in England as the end game of the tontine arrives. Mr. Keggs is a fellow tenant with Lord Uffenham (who has fallen on hard times), whom he formerly served as a butler, and his niece, Jane Benedick. Mr. Kegg's own niece, Emma, is engaged to marry Roscoe Bunyan, son of the late J.J. Bunyan, of the tontine. Like the wise and omniscient butler he is, Mr. Keggs had recorded the conversation that night and knows all about the tontine. The tontine is down to Roscoe and one other. Mr. Keggs decides that the time has come to intercede.
Jane is engaged to one Stanhope Twine, a hopeless sculptor, but the two cannot marry because Twine hasn't the funds. Mr. Keggs suggests to Roscoe that Twine is the other member of the tontine, and that Twine will marry in a heartbeat if he can get hold of some money. Keggs suggests that Roscoe buy a percentage of Twine's future earnings in exchange for a payment now. Keggs naturally hopes to be well paid for his advice, and is thoroughly annoyed when Roscoe only gives him fifty pounds for information about a tontine payment of over a million dollars.
Here's where the plot begins to unravel. Twine takes the money and jilts Jane. Roscoe jilts Emma, and Cupid is not exactly being served.
But Keggs has been playing a game. Twine isn't really in on the tontine.
Next, Keggs sells the information to Roscoe for $100,000. Roscoe doesn't want to pay and hires a detective to get back the agreement as well as Roscoe's letters to Emma.
In the meantime, Bill Hollister falls head over heels for Jane and she for him . . . having known each other as children. Bill Hollister's name really is in the tontine, and Mr. Keggs has to try to sort out all of the romances and the money. Ultimately, he succeeds . . . but in a way that no reader could hope to anticipate. It's a marvelously funny story with great plot complications.
To my way of thinking, The Butler Did It is one of the five best P.G. Wodehouse Books I have read.
Capital! Capital! Capital!
Towards the end of his career, P.G. Wodehouse found himself charmed by the idea of reprising the characters who and plot lines that provided the greatest triumphs in his earlier books. Bertie Wooster Sees It Through is a worthy sequel of that sort.
In the earlier book, you may remember that Stilton Cheesewright and Bertie Wooster had been schoolmates in preparatory school, at Eton and at Oxford. Stilton chose to become a policeman and his career led him to become very serious and strict in his outlook, so that Bertie thinks of him as "that blighter Stilton." Love transformed his life when he fell for the writer, Florence Craye. But Florence is also apt to respond well to Bertie, and Stilton takes that personally. When we last saw them, Florence and Stilton were engaged.
In this story, Bertie's Aunt Dahlia enlists him to come to her country home, Brinkley Court, to help her entertain a family by the name of Trotter. The assignment seems to be off to a rocky start, however, when the Trotters' stepson, Percy Gorringe, calls Bertie to hit him up for 1,000 pounds. That seems like too much entertaining and Bertie declines.
In the meantime, Bertie has started growing a mustache and Jeeves doesn't approve. In fact, no one else does either . . . except Florence Craye. That enrages an already touchy Stilton, who fears that Bertie is trying to steal Florence. Soon, Stilton is also sporting the hairy stuff on his upper lip. To make matters worse, Stilton has a large stake on Bertie in the Drones Club dart championship and decides that Bertie should starting keeping regular hours and keep off the sauce. And that's just why Bertie doesn't want to have anything to do with Florence, she's not only brainy . . . she also likes to improve her men. And Bertie likes himself just the way he is.
Stilton is also the jealous type and quickly turns suspicious when Bertie is picked up after a raid on a late-night bistro where Bertie had taken Florence at her request to do some research on local color.
But Aunt Dahlia has an even more serious problem. She has pawned her new necklace to buy the serial rights to a new story, and her husband, Uncle Tom, is about to have it appraised. She has been hiding the fact by wearing cultured pearls instead, but is about to be caught. Naturally, she decides to have Bertie steal the cultured pearls. And equally naturally, that proves to be more difficult than anyone can imagine and with unexpected consequences. And so the country farce begins!
Bertie Wooster Sees It Through has that nice combination of serious pending threats, irrational fears and hopes, and muddle-headedness that makes for such good social comedy. Like all of the best P.G. Wodehouse books, the language sparkles with original similes, metaphors and allusions.
Jolly good show!
December 16, 2002.
Is an excellent Book..
Rating: 5
It is a wonderful book with great humor.
December 23, 2001.
Even Wodehouse's Weaker Novels Are Fun . . ..
Rating: 3
but I wouldn't want anyone basing his/her opinion of the large and largely breathtakingly wit of Wodehouse's collected work based merely on this budget anthology. The novels are set in post-World War II England, and as such they reflect those dispiriting times. The great mansions are in ruin from confiscatory taxation, TV distracts the intellect, Hollywood (not the London theater) dominates popular entertainment, and a loyal butler like Jeeves is clearly a holdover from a different era in which his employers were not, relatively speaking, impoverished. Wodehouse's fans (of which there are many, both in the UK and the USA) will probably want to read these novels anyway. But if you are contemplating your first exposure to Wodehouse, I'd recommend instead any of his "classic" Bertie-and-Jeeves novels from the 1920s, when social class, punctilio, pith, dry wit and a plenitude of household help for the rich were integral elements of this type of humor. CARRY ON, JEEVES! happens to be my favorite, but there are plenty of other wonderful reads from this era.
December 25, 2000.
Let Plum be Plum! As Always...Great Fun!.
Rating: 4
I was more disappointed with the reviews of this book on Amazon.com than with the book itself! O.K., maybe it is "post-war angst", maybe it's the Long Island malaise, these stories are a bit darker than the "classics" of Blandings Castle or the Drones Club. But, dash it, they are Wodehouse and show an important part of his personality and the personality of his wonderful characters. Imagine a Jeeves-on-loan! Brilliant! It proves that Jeeves isn't only Jeeves at Bertie's side. By the way, isn't "Bill" Shannon (aka, "The Old Reliable") an lovely example of the modern, liberated woman! "The Butler Did It" also takes a deserved, but painless, whack at modern art. Don't let preconceptions tarnish what could well be "five of the best" from the master. I enjoyed them immensely.
December 14, 1999.
A Most Curious Collection.
Rating: 3
I'm a huge Wodehouse fan, and I find this to be the oddest of all collections. Unlike anything else I've read by Wodehouse, these tales take place after WWII, imbuing the normally bucolic Wodehousian universe with a discomforting sense of dread, of post-war angst. Wodehouse, who himself had much angst following the War, seems to let it show in these stories. A Postlapsarian Wodehouse is a very shaky Wodehouse indeed; oh, for the edenic airs of Blandings Castle, or the gentle hum of the Drones in the early afternoon. The reader is better off there.
December 11, 2007.
Easy, resturaunt quality food..
Rating: 5
This book has a good variety of dishes to choose from. They are easy to prepare and most don't require a lot of preparation time. Every thing from the main dishes to the desserts are delicious. Even though every recipe has a name brand ingredient, store brands work just as well in their place.
December 14, 2006.
great recipes..
Rating: 5
I thought the above comment was absolutely ridiculous. What people want to know is if this is a good cookbook. I don't think anyone is interested in if brand names are going to be the future of culinary arts. Broken down: good recipes, use generic if you are opposed to "brand names." The recipes range from fast and tasty to complicated and savory. I love this cookbook.
December 22, 2006.
Great recipes!!.
Rating: 5
I have owned this book for years now and have never made anything from it that was not yummy!! I usually ignore the actual brand names and just use the brand that I like or that I feel is the best quality. My mother and sister also own this book and they both love it, too.
December 30, 2006.
Do you want your brands served up by the marketing department?.
Rating: 3
With all the new channels for distribution available and considering all of the innovations in communications (both message and medium) the stakes are not only increasing rapidly -they have been moved. My opinion, the future will very likely be populated by brands that are defined less by big marketing firms and more by real people. This book seems to be ignoring the future.
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