The Book of Answers: The New York Public Library Telephone Reference Service's Most Unusual and Entertaining Questions »

Barbara Beruner has headed the New York Public Library's Telephone Reference Service since 1986. She and her staff of ten reference librarians are based in the Library's Mid-Manhattan Branch. Meunda Corey and George Ochoa are the authors of The Man in Lincoln's Nose: Funny, Profound, and Quotable Quotes of Screenwriters, Movie Stars, and Moguls and several other books. Ms. Corey is the coauthor of The Official Couch Potato Cookbook.

How many of these questions can you answer without calling the New York Public Library's Telephone Reference Service?

Who really designed the American flag?

How hot is the sun's surface?

How does quicksand work?

When was the Ark of the Covenant last seen?

Who sat at the Algonquin Round Table?

Where does the name "The Grateful Dead" come from?

Why is Christmas abbreviated as Xmas?

Can any creatures besides humans get a sunburn?

How many muscles does it take to smile? To frown?

Why are rabbits' feet considered good luck?

You could, of course, do all the painstaking research yourself. Or you could pick up the phone and call the resourceful, erudite, quick-witted librarians of the New York Public Library's Telephone Reference Service, Tel Ref, for whom questions like these are all in a day's work. For the past twenty years, Tel Ref has met the information needs of a public as diverse as the subjects in the Library's catalog, and now they've compiled their most interesting, unusual, and most-often-asked queries into The Book of Answers — a delight for browsers, a treasure trove of fascinating information, and the perfect companion to The New York Public Library Desk Reference.

Library Journal

What do NYPL librarians do with the most popular, peculiar, and humorous questions asked over a 20-year period? Find the answers, organize them into 27 subject areas, compile a 1300-term index, and publish it all in a book, of course. The result has enough whos, whens, wheres, whats, and whys to drive even the most dedicated trivia buff mad. (Who invented the brassiere? What is the longest recorded attack of hiccupping? Why are manholes round?) Although sources are not cited, the introductory material notes that each answer is based on documentation in the library's extensive collection. Use the New York Public Library Desk Refer ence ( LJ 7/89) as a primary reference source; purchase this for its entertainment value, or as a gift for the reference librarian who has everything.-- Stanley P. Hodge, Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, Ind.

Contents

Introduction

1. American History

2. American Statistics

3. The Animal World

4. Crime and Criminals

5. The English Language

6. Fine Arts

7. The First

8. Geography

9. Holidays

10. The Human Body

11. Inventions

12. Library Omnibus

13. Literature

14. Myth and Folklore

15. New York City History

16. Popular Culture

17. The Question and Answer Hall of Fame

18. Religion

19. Royalty and World Leaders

20. Science

21. Sports

22. Trademarks

23. U.S. Presidents

24. Who Was Who

25. World Cultures

26. World History

27. Twelve Trick Questions and

Popular Delusions

Index