Shite's Unoriginal Miscellany (The Shite series)

by Antal Parody

Book Overview

Weaving an eccentric course between fact-for-fact’s sake and that "display of superior knowledge which is more vulgar than the display of superior wealth," this hilarious installment in the Shite series brings together a mass of arcane, vital, or merely fascinating information. From semaphore signals, flowerpot sizes, and gestation periods for small mammals to Oxbridge colleges and Indian tribes at the Little Big Horn, a cornucopia of priceless snippets that...

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 1843172887
• ISBN13: 9781843172734
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Michael O'Mara
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.4" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

"A large number of facts which are unlikely to be of any use to anyone."

I can't recall any book that so lived up to its title or liner notes as this little masterpiece.You got to hand it to the Brits;who else would go to the trouble to assemble such a crock of useless information?It takes a special kind of mind ,and who are better equipped than the British,who have spent generations mastering the art of uselessness,needed to accomplish something like this...and with style. This is a great little tome for anyone with a short attention span;for the simple readon that it is extremely difficult to make your mind occupy more than 30 seconds on a page--go ahead and try--I challenge you. If you have a Brother-in- Law who fits this criteria,"I was going to buy him a book for his birthday,but didn't; because he already has one." ; here is an excellent gift for him;as it will complete is library.No doubt,he will find it spellbinding and it will give him endless hours of thought provoking reading. However;prepare yourself for endless quotations from him;or if you hear him interrupting the conversation with ,"Did you know...?;take the opportunity to disappear. The book is loaded with such amazing stuff that many of the learned people in this world;are simply unaware of. Let me just give you a few examples; Ten amusing catchphrases beginning with the word" go".ie. "Go and stick your nose up a dead bear's bum". Mafia nicknames.ie.Sam Giancana--"Mooney",Ronnie De Angelis--"Balloon Head", Albert Anastasia--"The Mad Hatter",John Gotti--"The Dapper Don","The Teflon Don","Mr.Untouchable", and 60 others. A list of the years in which Friday 13th falls in a January. Some Latin swearwords.ie. spucatum tauri--bull**it Some opening lines.ie. "Do you believe in love at first sight,or should I walk by again?" Some intriguing surgical operations.ie. glossectomy--removal of all or part of tongue,rhinoplasty--repair of nose. Some modern proverbs.ie. "Red sky at night,the reactor's alight/Red sky at morn,nuclear dawn." And that's only the beginning,there's over 260 lists and subjects of other useless information;to amuse yourself or to lay on some unsuspecting soul.

A clever parody

First came Schott's Original Miscellany. Now comes a hilarious British parody, by the fictional A. Parody, that takes the original book one step sillier. This small volume is a compendium of off-the-wall and funny facts, mostly in the form of lists. The contents range from the factual, such as famous people with pseudonyms and the semaphore alphabet, to the fictional "7 things you can never quite remember," in which Santa's reindeer include Comic and Blitzkreig. Some of the categories are outrageously useless, such as prime numbers whose individual digits add up to 11. Some are useful, such as collective nouns for animals and a list of the aliens from Star Trek. Let's not forget such silly gems as "Ways to end a romance" and "Not wildly popular sea captains." This book even satirizes an index; the last page claims that an index should be tailored to the reader and then proceeds to explain how to construct your own. This book is witty, creative, and a great spoof. You might even learn a thing or two from it. Just remember to take its contents with a generous dash of salt! This would make a great gag gift for the trivia buff.Eileen Rieback

Brit Humour, Great Bathroom Read, really!

This is a great bathroom read, or for urbanites, the train. If you read Mental Floss magazine, and enjoy Brit humor, then you'll probably enjoy this small, slim edition. The reading is concise and easy to digest, fun and thought provoking. Great to share with friends.

THIS IS INTENDED AS A PARODY OF THE VERY ENTERTAINING

SCHOTT'S ORIGINAL MISCELLANY. What's interesting is, I found it just as dip-into-able as the original. The humor is British, so if you don't "get" British humor it might fall flat. On the other hand, it is cheaper than the original and my suspicion is that if you enjoyed browsing Schott's, you will enjoy browsing this as well.