The Pedants Revolt

Author : Andrea Barham
Publisher : Bantam
ISBN 13 : 9780553385045
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Pedant's Revolt written by Andrea Barham and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pedants, revolt! In this irreverent, smart, obscenely entertaining book, Andrea Barham shatters the myths, misconceptions, fallacies, and falsehoods about all the things you thought you knew (and a few you never considered). Lead pencils can give you lead poisoning.… Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head….One dog year equals seven human years….Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat cake!”…Spelling Christmas “Xmas” is disrespectful….Fact or fiction?The Pedant’s Revolt: Know What Know-It-Alls Knowsets the record straight on everything from the truth about starving a fever to why you shouldn’t “go for the burn.” In chapters literary, medical, grammatical, historical, scientific, and biblical, you’ll discover the facts behind the fallacies that have somehow become accepted wisdom. From insects to food, grooming to Greeks, bumblebees to whales…from the animal kingdom to assassinations, Harpo Marx to Shakespeare, and questionable quotes such as “It’s all Greek to me,” this remarkable book reveals the often surprising origins of the legends and folklore we mistake for the gospel truth—and teaches you to think twice before repeating them.

Author : Andrea Barham
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0385340168
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Pedant's Revolt written by Andrea Barham and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Debunking common misconceptions and myths that have become accepted wisdom, an irreverent and informative trivia handbook sets the record straight on a wide variety of topics, ranging from history and science to the arts, famous quotations, and food. 20,000 first printing.

Author : Andrea Barham
Publisher : Michael O'Mara Books
ISBN 13 : 1843176726
Total Pages : 163 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Pedant's Revolt written by Andrea Barham and published by Michael O'Mara Books. This book was released on 2011-05-20 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bell goes for last orders and you still haven't sorted out whether or not flamingos are pink because of their diet or if Lady Godiva really rode through the streets of Coventry naked? The Pedant's Revolt is the ultimate go-to book for settling many an unresolved dispute, shedding light on a wide range of facts that we have always believed to be true, but which are, in fact, completely false. The book covers a wide range of diverse topics, from history to science, the arts, the animal kingdom, medicine, the human body, and food and drink. Presenting its well-researched facts in a highly accessible and entertaining manner, this intriguing book sets the record straight, exposing misconceptions that have become entrenched in everyday thought.

Author : Andrea Barham
Publisher : Bantam
ISBN 13 : 9780553384918
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Pedant's Return written by Andrea Barham and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Pedant's Revolt you learned that you were wrong about everything you thought was right. Now the Pedant returns--with a twist. The Pedant's Return is an addictive collection of outlandish assertions that are so absurd...they must be true. Prepare to discover that you're wrong about, well, even the things you think are wrong. Apple seeds are poisonous? An electric eel can actually electrocute you? The S in Harry S. Truman doesn't stand for anything? Everyone knows those are old wives' tales...or are they? Luckily the Pedant has returned to rescue you from your ignorance and to explain to you why: -Eating too many carrots can turn you orange -Bone china contains actual bones -Men have a higher pain threshold than women -Charles Darwin married his first cousin -A beer shortage caused the Pilgrims' early landing at Plymouth -Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, had a genital piercing -A citizen's arrest is legal From the entertainment industry to the Bible, food and drink to medical matters, royalty to birds and insects, The Pedant's Return sets the record straight about everything you thought you knew. Prepare to be fascinated--and flabbergasted--at just how wrong you've been all along

Author : Fraser McAlpine
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0698183878
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Stuff Brits Like written by Fraser McAlpine and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you’re looking for the best biscuit to dunk in your tea, the ideal temperature at which to serve real ale or the perfect pasty for your trip to the seaside, you either A) Have been desperately seeking a book exactly like this one or, B) Have secretly become British without realizing it. If you chose A, congratulations, you are an Anglophile! And, if you chose B, don’t panic. With the help of Stuff Brits Like, you will soon discover the joy of these and many more delightful British peculiarities and can develop an upper lip as stiff as any you’ve seen on Downton Abbey. British native Fraser McAlpine set out to do for his countrymen what Stuff Parisians Like did for their neighbors across the channel—offering a guide to their particular tastes and eccentricities with all the cheeky wit you might expect from the people who gave you Noël Coward and Eddie Izzard. You may know to say football instead of soccer and crisps instead of chips. You may even know why taking the piss is more fun and less unsanitary than it sounds. But with Stuff Brits Like, you’ll be ready for the next pub quiz in no time.

Author : Andrea Barham
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781843172161
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.6X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Pedants Return written by Andrea Barham and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hot on the heels of the 2005 hit The Pedant's Revolt (which has sold over 35,000 copies in the UK and reached no. 6 in the amazon charts) comes The Pedant's Return, the latest in Andrea Barham's popular pedantry series. Aimed at everyone from pedants to know-it-alls, as well as those simply wishing to 'get it right', the book will appeal to the modern passion for factual accuracy. How many times have you encountered an extraordinary 'fact' in your everyday life that's led you to think, 'That can't possibly be true!'? Or you've heard something highly improbable and completely dismissed the chances of it being in the least bit authentic? In The Pedant's Return a great many doubts will be dispelled, as a range of surprising statements that sound as though they couldn't possibly be genuine, are, through careful and committed research, revealed to be 100 per cent correct.

Author : Ian Allen
Publisher : Portico
ISBN 13 : 1910232572
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book 365 Reasons to be Proud to be a Dad written by Ian Allen and published by Portico. This book was released on 2015-06-04 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being a dad is a 365-day job. Let this nifty little book help you along the way, with a hilarious dad-related fact for every day of the year. Discover how 26 August is the anniversary of the car you probably learned to drive in, and stroke your smooth chin thoughtfully as you learn that 13 May is the day the electric shaver was invented. Find out when and where the first piece of flatpack furniture was invented (Ancient Greece, no less, and it was more of a temple than a wardrobe...), and, on 19 November, remember that there’s always a more incompetent parent than you as you recall the day a certain baby boy was dangled off a balcony. Packed with stories of dad derring-do, this book is the perfect buy for any dad you know, or someone who’s about to become one. Word count: 35,000

Author : David Marsh
Publisher : Guardian Faber Publishing
ISBN 13 : 178335013X
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book For Who the Bell Tolls written by David Marsh and published by Guardian Faber Publishing. This book was released on 2013-10-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Who the Bell Tolls is a book that explains the grammar that people really need to know, such as the fact that an apostrophe is the difference between a company that knows its s*** and a company that knows it's s***, or the importance of capital letters to avoid ambiguity in such sentences as 'I helped my Uncle Jack off his horse.' David Marsh's lifelong mission has been to create order out of chaos. For four decades, he has worked for newspapers, from the Sun to the Financial Times, from local weeklies that sold a few thousand copies to the Guardian, with its global readership of nine million, turning the sow's ear of rough-and-ready reportage into a passable imitation of a silk purse. The chaos might be sloppy syntax, a disregard for grammar or a fundamental misunderstanding of what grammar is. It could be an adherence to 'rules' that have no real basis and get in the way of fluent, unambiguous communication at the expense of ones that are actually useful. Clear, honest use of English has many enemies: politicians, business and marketing people, local authority and civil service jargonauts, rail companies, estate agents, academics . . . and some journalists. This is the book to help defeat them. 'A splendid and, more importantly, sane book on English grammar.' Mark Forsyth, author of The Etymologicon

Author : Les Palmer
Publisher : Portico
ISBN 13 : 1909396354
Total Pages : 139 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How To Win Your Pub Quiz written by Les Palmer and published by Portico. This book was released on 2013-06-14 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do YOU dream of one day winning your local pub quiz? Wouldn’t it be great to wipe that smug smile off the face of the weekly winners? How To Win Your Pub Quiz is a glorious celebration of a great British institution – the pub quiz – and your 100% guarantee* of ultimate quizzing victory. Written by a self-confessed quizaholic, this funny guide to pub quizzing expertly describes how to turn your crap team into a winning machine! By supplying you with everything you need to know to tackle those tricky questions and rounds, as well as loads of other super hints, tips and trivia, this unique companion will have you completely destroying the competition in no time. So, put your thinking caps on people – let’s get quizzical! *Not an actual guarantee.

Author : Libby Purves
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134115547
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Little Learning written by Libby Purves and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-08-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lively selection brings together journalist and broadcaster Libby Purves’ experiences as journalist, parent, governor and former pupil, displaying her eclectic and provocative opinions and ideas on teaching and learning.