This is a book you wish would never end and you close it with a sigh for time marvelously spent. Frimbo, the pseudonym of Rogers Whitaker, has traveled more than two million miles by rail, or more than 86 times around the globe. He hopes to cover every piece of trackage known in the States -- and tomorrow the world! A man of regal outlook, and merry with statistics, Frimbo is a lexicographer, connoisseur, sports writer, and grand master of pleasure, who is, now and then, accompanied by a contessa -- a woman of formidable expertise in handling Arab cab drivers or Frimbo himself. These sketches -- many of which appeared in The New Yorker, should've been named Frimbo in Paradise. Still, there's a lingering feeling that, despite his timetable keenness about absolutely everything, he's in some kind of beautifully upholstered coma.