The Mammoth Book of Oddballs & Eccentrics

Karl Shaw - The Mammoth Book of Oddballs & Eccentrics
Robinson, 2000
502 str.
mehka vezava
stanje: zelo dobro

Howard Hughes, Liberace, Imelda Marcos, Sarah Bernhardt, Ed Wood, Jr., Ludwig von Beethoven -- they're all here, along with an astonishing assortment of other oddballs, kooks, dreamers, despots, prophets, performers, royals, politicians, inventors, philosophers, writers, artists, and more garden-variety eccentrics. Here, too, are the phobias, compulsions, odd beliefs, and weird habits that have placed them in the ranks of the bizarre, curious, and strange. You will discover, for instance, that Elvis Presley was convinced he could turn Graceland's sprinkler system on and off by the sheer power of concentration, that Salvador Dali ate vast quantities of Camembert cheese before bedtime to make his dreams more vivid, that Florence Nightingale carried a miniature pet owl in her pocket, while Kaiser Wilhelm II always carried with him photos of his deceased relatives in their funeral attire. You will learn, too, that the Victorian judge Lord Monboddo spent his entire life convinced that babies were born with tails (which midwives cut off), and that John Harvey Kellogg of cereal fame spent his wedding night writing an essay on the evils of sexual intercourse. Throughout the pages of this mammoth book you'll find impulses, whims, obsessions, and hangups as skewed as the schemes of Francisco Lopez, the Paraguay president who attempted to rout the Brazilian army with a battalion of small boys wearing false beards. You'll find cases galore that are screwier, too.

This collection of anecdotes of assorted people and their compulsions, odd beliefs and weird habits reveals such gems as the battalion of small boys in false beards sent by the Paraguayan president to rout the Brazilian army, and Florence Nightingale's pet owl that lived in her pocket.

Contents:
Introduction
Aristocratic eccentrics
Religious eccentrics
Eccentric genius
Political eccentrics
Legal eccentrics
Military eccentrics
Medical eccentrics
The eccentric muse
Cracked actors & peculiar performers
Sporting eccentrics
Royal eccentrics
Eccentric builders
Hermits, misers & misanthropes
Eccentric exits
Unstrung heroes


Nonfiction, Humor, History, Trivia, Reference, Biography, 184119073X

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