National Lampoon's Big Book of True Facts: A Brand-New Collection of Absurd-but-True Real-Life Funny Stuff, compiled by Jay Naughton and Tom Snyders
Among a variety of other bizarre collections of facts, there's a page dedicated to the "maximum allowable defects in food." It's entertainingly disgusting to learn just how many rodent "excreta pellets" popcorn can have, and that the average mold count in frozen strawberries can be as much as 45 percent. Newspaper reports of apt marriage partners (Good-Loser, Mustard-Pickels, Beaver-Trimmer) are guaranteed chuckle inducers, and a page of excerpts from uncolicited manuscripts sent to an unnamed editor is, too. ("He peeled his eyes from the boy's face.")
Although the variety in Big Book of True Facts
is one of its strongest points, it's Tom Snyders' collection
of funny signs, labels, ads, and gravestones that holds everything
together. "The Bicycling Comedian" has been snapping
odd signs for seventeen years while pedaling his touring bike
more than 124,000 miles in fifty states, eleven countries,
and three continents (including a trek to a small town with
the appealing name of "Dongola"). Over 200 of his
pictures are in the book, an impressive lineup that includes
such classics as "Ronald McDonald Funeral Home,"
"Big Bone Lick State Park," and "Do Not Pass
When Traffic Oncoming." Happy random-paging!
Megan
Edwards
11/6/04
