Our cherished culturally shared beliefs stem from a variety of sources, many of which propagate old wives’ tales, myths, self-serving fantasies, innocent fallacies, or sheer nonsense. History is replete with stories of great men and events that either never happened or didn’t happen the way we were told they did. Such items are part of our common knowledge. They are taught in schools. They are passed down to us by our families and friends and have become part of shared cultural knowledge, accepted without question. And they are wrong. Here, Herb Reich explodes 200 myths that you probably accept as fact, including: 
<ul>
<li> Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player in the major leagues.</li>
<li> The captain of a ship can perform marriages.</li>
<li> Mussolini’s trains ran on time.</li>
<li> Charles Lindbergh was the first man to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.</li>
<li> Baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday in 1839.</li>
<li> The Mason-Dixon line was drawn to separate the slave South from the free North. </li>
<li> Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag.</li>
<li> Cleopatra was Egyptian.</li>
<li> Chicago is called the windy city” because of the gusts off Lake Michigan.</li>
</ul> It is a cliché that history is written by the victors. But Don’t You Believe It! will demonstrate that it is also written by teachers, by newsmen, by heirs, by hucksters, and occasionally by someone who has a lousy memory or an axe to grind.

Don't You Believe It!: Exposing the Myths Behind Commonly Believed Fallacies

Humor & Entertainment

Reich, Herb W.

Puzzles & Games

Skyhorse

What does the number 67 mean to you? Do you associate it with a year? After all, 1967 was the year The Beatles released both Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. It was also the year the first Super Bowl was held and in which Ernesto “Che” Guevara was executed. But maybe the year 1967 isn’t the first thing that comes to your mind. Maybe when you think about the number 67, you think of the . . . 
<ul>
<li> Age of George Washington at the time of his death, on December 14, 1799. </li>
<li> Atomic number of the chemical element holmium, symbol Ho. </li>
<li> Number of counties in each of the states of Alabama, Florida, and Pennsylvania. </li>
<li> Most doubles hit in a season in Major League Baseball history (Earl Webb, Boston Red Sox, 1931). </li>
<li> Number worn by partners Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin in the dance marathon scene in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
</li>
<li> Estimate number of miles, in millions, from Venus to the sun </li>
</ul> In Numberpedia, author Herb Reich examines all of the random, seemingly unrelated trivia related to numbers 1 to 100 in painstaking detail, revealing lore, myths, and every bizarre factoid you’d ever want to know about those numbers—except, of course, those concerning math.

Numberpedia: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (and a Few Things You Didn't) About Numbers

Reference

Complaining, psychologists assert, is good for the soul. It acts as a relief valve to help dispel the pent-up energy generated by our frustration. If we weren’t able to complain, we would no doubt exhibit more physical violence and engage more frequently in destructive behavior. Our neighbors outrage us, our children mock us, strangers insult us, government agencies mistreat us, unscrupulous entrepreneurs victimize us, and even inanimate objects conspire to screw up our lives. Compelling inner voices harass us, the crowd in the Agora thwarts us, and irrationality surrounds us everywhere. It’s enough to make someone paranoid! 2,501 Things That Really Piss Me Off demonstrates that misery loves company, and that we are the company that misery loves. Intended as a catalog of everything irksome in our lives, 2,501 Things That Really Piss Me Off reviews the broad spectrum of affronts, annoyances, nuisances, grievances, vexations, mortifications, and molestations that disrupt our equanimity and that daily pervert the simple pleasures of living. It gives voice to the time-honored practice of people everywhere in the worldgriping. Within these pages the reader will find items of anger, reflection, humor, social comment, and even the occasional non sequitur. For its octogenarian author, it is pure catharsis, but it is also the author’s intention that the reader be entertained, and, with a little luck, enriched by the realization that the demons that confound him confound the rest of us as well. That he is not alone in his Weltschmerz.

2,501 Things That Really Piss Me Off: A Catalog of Insults and Intrusions That are Sure to Ruin My Day

Humor

It is a cliché that history is written by the victors, but what we accept as history is replete with stories of great men and events that either never happened or didn’t happen the way we were told they did. Such items are taught in schools. They are passed down to us by our families and friends and have become part of our shared cultural knowledge. And they are wrong. Touching on a number of topics— including history, current events, government, sports, geography, and popular culture—Lies They Teach in School exposes errors that have been perpetuated for far too long. It will enlighten and entertain. It will certainly start a number of arguments, and settle a few others.

Lies They Teach in School: Exposing the Myths Behind 250 Commonly Believed Fallacies

History

Americas

Complaining, psychologists assert, is good for your health. It acts as a relief valve to help dispel the pent up energy generated by our daily frustrations, personal peeves, and life-long vexations. Now curmudgeons, gripers, grousers, and complainers have their own place to discard their tension! 101 Things That Piss Me Off is the manifesto guaranteed to help even the crabbiest soul let loose. Here is just a sample list of items guaranteed to piss anyone off: • Aggressive drivers who give the finger • People who graduated from assertiveness courses • Elevator music • Having the best senators money can buy • Appliances that fail the day after the warranty expires • Nineteen-year-old tech millionaires • People who are more inept than we give them credit for

101 Things That Piss Me Off: And Thousands of Other Things That Suck Just As Much

Racehorse Publishing