In the modern age, where information is plentiful but selection and analysis elusive, Schott's Almanac presents a unique biography of the year: from Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's historic presidential runs to George Bush's continued infatuation with "the Google," from marriage and crime statistics to the incidence of shark bites worldwide, and from the Nobel Prize for Literature to the Bad Sex in Fiction award, Schott's Almanac distills information and opinions critically, giving readers an accurate biography of the year past. Practical, entertaining, and utterly compulsive, Schott's Almanac eschews endless lists and tiny type to present an elegantly designed and utterly compulsive selection of the year's events.

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.

Did you know that cats were once used to deliver mail in Belgium? That the “huddle” in football became popular after a deaf player began using it to prevent other teams from reading his sign language? That the average American eats 30 pounds of cheese in a year? Organized from A to Z, there are over 1,000 trivia tidbits for you to peruse. Start off with little-known facts about Aristotle and Barbie, and continue until you’ve discovered hidden gems about zombies, zippers, and more! Did you know that Levi Strauss originally intended to sell canvas tents to miners in California but ended up using the fabric to make what the prospectors really needed—pants? Or that a chicken in Colorado had its head cut off and managed to live for another two years? Did you know that if Americans were to switch just 10 percent of their total mileage to scooters, we would consume 14 million gallons less fuel and reduce CO2 emissions by 324 million pounds in just one day? Or that on May 15th, 1950, Coca-Cola became the first product ever to appear on the cover of Time magazine?

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.

Which came first, sliced bread or the toaster? When did most people begin wearing deodorant? Who invented the electric blanket? Catherine O’Reilly tackles questions such as these with a keen curiosity and well-honed writing skills. Her ability to turn any normal home into a jungle of history, invention, and technological wonder is a treat. For fans of Schott’s Original Miscellany and The Book of Useless Information, O’Reilly’s Did Thomas Crapper Really Invent the Toilet? is another smart and quirky look at miscellaneous items. Learn the real histories of the blender, the fire extinguisher, the cheese grater, the clock radio, deodorant, Post-its, fabric softener, and, of course, the toilet. These are the unknown stories of everyday items that we take for granted.

You've experienced the shiny, point-and-click surface of your Linux computer--now dive below and explore its depths with the power of the command line. The Linux Command Line takes you from your very first terminal keystrokes to writing full programs in Bash, the most popular Linux shell (or command line). Along the way you'll learn the timeless skills handed down by generations of experienced, mouse-shunning gurus: file navigation, environment configuration, command chaining, pattern matching with regular expressions, and more. In addition to that practical knowledge, author William Shotts reveals the philosophy behind these tools and the rich heritage that your desktop Linux machine has inherited from Unix supercomputers of yore. As you make your way through the book's short, easily-digestible chapters, you'll learn how to: • Create and delete files, directories, and symlinks • Administer your system, including networking, package installation, and process management • Use standard input and output, redirection, and pipelines • Edit files with Vi, the world's most popular text editor • Write shell scripts to automate common or boring tasks • Slice and dice text files with cut, paste, grep, patch, and sed Once you overcome your initial "shell shock," you'll find that the command line is a natural and expressive way to communicate with your computer. Just don't be surprised if your mouse starts to gather dust.

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.

A cross between Henry Beard's Latin for All Occasions and Ben Schott's Schott's Original Miscellany, JUST SAY NU is a practical guide to using Yiddish words and expressions in day-to-day situations. Along with enough grammar to enable readers to put together a comprehensible sentence and avoid embarrassing mistakes, Wex also explains the five most useful Yiddish words–shoyn, nu, epes, takeh,and nebakh–what they mean, how and when to use them, and how they can be used to conduct an entire conversation without anybody ever suspecting that the reader doesn't have the vaguest idea of what anyone is actually saying. Readers will learn how to shmooze their way through such activities as meeting and greeting; eating and drinking; praising and finding fault; maintaining personal hygiene; going to the doctor; driving; parenting; getting horoscopes; committing crimes; going to singles bars; having sex; talking politics and talking trash. Now that Stephen Colbert, a Catholic from South Carolina and host of the "Colbert Report," is using Yiddish to wish viewers a bright and happy Chanukah, people have finally started to realize that there's nothing in the world that can't be improved by translating it into Yiddish. Wex's JUST SAY NU is the book that's going to show them how.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British bestseller. Challenging what most of us assume to be verifiable truths in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more,The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of how little we actually know about anything. It’ll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school. Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again. You’ll be surprised at how much you don’t know! Check out The Book of General Ignorance for more fun entries and complete answers to the following: How long can a chicken live without its head? About two years. What do chameleons do? They don’t change color to match the background. Never have; never will. Complete myth. Utter fabrication. Total Lie. They change color as a result of different emotional states. How many legs does a centipede have? Not a hundred. How many toes has a two-toed sloth? It’s either six or eight. Who was the first American president? Peyton Randolph. What were George Washington’s false teeth made from? Mostly hippopotamus. What was James Bond’s favorite drink? Not the vodka martini.

A witty, highly entertaining compendium of the many obscure potential killers that lurk in modern society. From telephone stroke (holding the receiver too tightly to one's head) to the most common housework-related fatalities among men, health journalist John Naish culls the most intriguing, odd, and completely true medical findings and bizarre syndromes. Fans of The Worst Case Scenario books and Schott's Original Miscellany will revel in this latest addition to the reference shelf. But don't let it make you fret too much--research shows that worrying about your health quadruples your chances of an early death.