A report from the contestant’s podium of particular interest to anyone who endeavors to become a human equivalent of Google.
Trivia maven Jennings, who won millions and broke records on Jeopardy, puts his knowledge of all those worthless factoids to good use.
The former software programmer from Utah and self-proclaimed information geek, has produced a test considerably easier to take than you might expect. Naturally, it is stuffed with challenges to the reader to identify ephemeral curiosities, esoteric records, odd information and all sorts of historical detritus. (Answers at the end of each chapter: no cheating!) But Jennings’s prose is competent enough to keep even the trivia-impaired turning the pages in this survey of his nerdy avocation’s lore and history. Once upon a time in the pursuit of odd facts, newspaper archives were called upon and public librarians were accommodating, more or less. Then there were the cartoons of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and radio’s Information Please! Now, of course, there’s the Internet to provide a proliferation of solid information and false facts. Jennings chronicles the evolution of game shows. He discusses the current state of the trivia business, the proper composition of questions, the role of nostalgia, the uses of mnemonics and the neurotic dedication of a true competitor. Are all those disparate pieces of information just useless esoterica hiding under your Snapple caps, or are they more? Does “knowing all your state flowers and the kings of Saxony . . . the longest book in the Bible and the shortest Shakespeare play” really constitute cultural literacy? Is that your final answer?
A report from the contestant’s podium of particular interest to anyone who endeavors to become a human equivalent of Google.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 1-4000-6445-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2006
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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