Erma Bombeck assesses the individual's chances for survival in the seventies, dealing with such issues as the difficulty of replacing a toilet-tissue spindle and the recent discovery that lettuce is fattening

Offers tongue-in-cheek insight into American democracy with coverage of such topics as the republican qualities of ancient Rome, the antics of our nation's founders, and the ludicrous nature of today's media.

The comedian's best-selling first book of original humor displays his trademark skill at finding the hilariously strange in the ordinary and his unparalleled collection of oxymorons. Reprint. 250,000 first printing.

The twentieth-century American artist and writer uses cartoons and stories to parody the shortcomings of modern man

A hilarious memoir chronicles the seedy adventures of a Jersey City family of criminals, bookies, con artists, embezzlers, and mobster-wannabes and the author's dramatic experiences growing up in such an environment. Reader's Guide included. Reprint. 60,000 first printing.

In this handbook, ordinary people are provided with the tricks of the espionage trade and instructions on how to apply spycraft in their lives, including how to outswindle swindlers, and how to make oneself less appealing as a target to crooks. Original.

Encompassing hundreds of articles no longer available on TheOnion.com archive, this second comprehensive anthology contains all the hilarious stories from October 2002 through October 2003, including such memorable ones as "Actress Excited to Land Eating Disorder Ad" and "U.S. Invades Non-Oil-Rich Nation to Dispel Criticism." Original. 150,000 first printing.

Profiles the lives and convoluted relations of notorious rulers including Catherine the Great, King George III, and Joanna the Mad.

Matthijs van Boxsel believes that no one is intelligent enough to understand their own stupidity. In The Encyclopædia of Stupidity he shows how stupidity manifests itself in all areas, in everyone, at all times, proposing that stupidity is the foundation of our civilization. In short sections with such titles as 'The Blunderers' Club', 'Fools in Hell', 'Genealogy of Idiots', and 'The Aesthetics of the Empty Gesture', stupidity is analysed on the basis of fairy tales, cartoons, triumphal arches, garden architecture, Baroque ceilings, jokes, flimsy excuses and science fiction. But Van Boxsel wants to do more than just assemble a 'shadow cabinet' of wisdom; he tries to fathom the logic of this opposite world. Where do understanding and intelligence begin and end? He examines mythic fools such as Cyclops and King Midas, cities such as Gotham, archetypes including the dumb blonde, and traditionally stupid animals such as the goose, the donkey and the headless chicken. Van Boxsel posits that stupidity is a condition for intelligence, that blunders stimulate progress, that failure is the basis for success. In this erudite and witty book he maintains that our culture is the product of a series of failed attempts to comprehend stupidity.