For your amusement, for your edification and inspiration, for livening up that speech you have to give: proverbs have an irresistible power. These little pockets of wisdom say volumes about a culture--so take a tour around the world in words. You'll encounter the lively and colorful sayings from all around the world: Africa and its diaspora (Haiti, Jamaica, and African-American); Central and South America; Mexico; Native American; China, Japan; Italy; Ireland; Scotland; Israel; and the Arab nations.

Universally popular, checkers is one of the world s oldest and most elegantly structured board games and on a high level, it can demand real strategic thought. Put your skill to the test with these puzzles all based on the Standard American game. (Federation rules appear in their entirety.) Each is solvable in no more than six-and-a-half moves, and sometimes, the winner even seems at a serious disadvantage at the start. Quite a few of the solutions list alternative patterns of play. "

Details, details, details. Planning a wedding can be a nightmare, and few of us are experienced.

Words to comfort, amuse, enlighten, and above all, inspire: more than 485 pages of diverse quotations offer tasty food for thought.

From the perennially popular "Little Giant Encyclopedia" series comes "Toasts & Quotes," now beautifully repackaged in a sophisticated new edition that will make a great gift. This delightful book is packed full of interesting, witty, and heartfelt sentiments for all occasions. Enhance your conversation--or any speech--with witty quotations, thoughts, and toasts on everything from marriage to alcohol, politics to civilization, cinema to computers. More than 2,000 quotes and 800 proverbs range from ancient thinkers such as Lao-Tzu and Plato to wit from modern entertainers like Letterman and Miss Piggy.

This book explores various aspects of marriage and the ways it is viewed and conceptualized in the body of Anglo-American anti-proverbs (or proverb transformations). It also depicts those who contribute to the institution of marriage (that is, husbands and wives), and analyses their nature, qualities, attributes and behaviours as revealed through such anti-proverbs. In addition, the text investigates those who remain single and do not belong to the institution of marriage, but contribute to the institution of marriage. It will appeal to a wide range of readers, from the casually interested general reader to the paremiologist, paremiographer, lexicographer, and anthropologist.

Compilation of the best proverbs from around the world — ancient and modern — offers concise, time-honored wisdom about love, money, politics, and human nature. Handsome gift-book format makes this volume an ideal present.

Every time you mess up, you feel the need to make an excuse. If you're tired of offering the same old tired explanations, take your pick from this encyclopedic collection of hundreds of excuses you've never used before. They're organized into categories like medical emergencies ("I have a chemical imbalance"), weather ("the humidity swelled my door shut"), ancient proverbs ("nothing is inevitable until it happens"), and reasons that make no sense ("I did my own thing and now I have to undo it"). You can even pick the perfect excuse for particular people: boss, spouse, date, or cop. Serious excuse makers will appreciate the psychological interpretations of various responses, to make sure you pick the right one for every situation.

Explains the meanings of thousands of signs, omens, spells, charms, cures, rituals, and taboos; arranged alphabetically by topic.