You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant: 101 Real Dumb Laws »

Jeff Koon will graduate from high school in 2002. His favorite subject is history. Appearing on the Montel Williams Show with Andy in summer 2001 crowned his dot.com career. He lives in Georgia.

You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant is a collection of the 101 dumbest real federal, city, and state laws in America, compiled by Jeff Koon and Andy Powell, a couple of high school seniors with a Web site visited by hundreds of thousands of browsers every month. These laws will astonish, possibly outrage, and certainly amuse citizens everywhere.

Here you will learn that forgetting to close a gate is against the law in Nevada; that flying a kite is illegal in Schaumburg, Illinois; and that shaking carpets in the street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is strictly forbidden. You probably haven't tried cutting off your arm to make people feel sorry for you — but if you live in Alabama, it is against the law. Many Texans will be surprised to learn that their hoes must be no less than four feet long. Perhaps more disturbingly, Indianans will be forced to recognize that being sexually aroused in public could get them arrested. With so many potential legal pitfalls around us all, it is comforting, finally, to learn in these pages that, in Alaska, the people who make laws have sagely concluded that emergencies are "held to a minimum and are rarely found to exist."

This hilarious compilation features forty-six original illustrations by award-winning artist Ward Schumaker that brilliantly capture the absurdity of so many of our laws with a light and elegant touch.

Publishers Weekly

In Utah, first cousins can marry, but only after they're 65 years old. Training a bear to wrestle is a felony in Alabama. In Delaware it's illegal to sell perfume as a drink. Seventeen-year-olds Jeff Koon and Andy Powell collect these and other wacky laws in You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant: 101 Real Dumb Laws. Some of the laws show compassion (in Florida's Jupiter Colony Inlet, you can't launch missiles at birds), while others are just plain bizarre (in Oklahoma, hamburgers purchased on Sunday can only be eaten in the restaurant). (June) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.