Discover what all the other encyclopedias leave out This is the superbly satisfying compendium of weird factoids too interesting to be contained in your average encyclopedia. Daring to cross-reference the un-cross-reference-able, to alphabetize what cannot be alphabetized, and to deliver the highest concentration of fun that can fit in one book's spine, this information is too useless to waste: In Denmark, pigs go 'knor'; in Germany, horses go 'prrrh'; in ancient Greece, dogs went 'au au.' Italians sneeze 'ecci ecci.' A teacher in Italy was disciplined in 1996 for passing students exam answers hidden in salami sandwiches. In 1957 the U.S. air force completed a survey of the Atlantic Ocean but refused to divulge its width on the grounds that the information might be of military use to the Russians. In Paris in 1740 a cow was hanged in public following its conviction for sorcery.

Hatrston, William