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The Book of Origins |
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Discover the Amazing Origins of the Clothes We Wear, the Foo d We Eat, the PeopleWe Know, the Languages We Speak, and the Things We Use
Trevor Homer - Author
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| Book: Paperback | 8.26 x 5.23in | 320 pages | ISBN 9780452288324 | 29 May 2007 | Plume | 18 - AND UP |
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Everything—from the mundane (the pencil) to the catastrophic (the atom bomb)—has an origin, but often it’s not what we expect. A few things you may not have known:
• Gandhi was married at age thirteen!
• Chinese fortune cookies are an American invention and were not eaten in China until the 1990s when they were advertised as “Genuine American Fortune Cookies.”
• Bayer lost the trademark for aspirin (which they had held since 1897) as part of the reparations Germany was forced to pay after World War I.
• The original idea for the electric chair came from an American dentist.
For aspiring mindblowers and wanna-be know-it-alls, The Book of Origins is a treasure trove of trivia and fascinating facts guaranteed to entertain and enlighten.
Read Trevor Homer's posts on the Penguin Blog.
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