The Pedant's Revolt: Why Most Things You Think Are Right Are Wrong - Softcover

Barham, Andrea

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843175878 ISBN 13: 9781843175872

Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books, 2005

Synopsis

The bell goes for last orders and you still haven't sorted out whether or not flamingos are pink because of their diet or if Lady Godiva really rode through the streets of Coventry naked? The Pedant's Revolt is the ultimate go-to book for settling many an unresolved dispute, shedding light on a wide range of facts that we have always believed to be true, but which are, in fact, completely false. The book covers a wide range of diverse topics, from history to science, the arts, the animal kingdom, medicine, the human body, and food and drink. Presenting its well-researched facts in a highly accessible and entertaining manner, this intriguing book sets the record straight, exposing misconceptions that have become entrenched in everyday thought.

About this title

About the Author

Author and freelance technical writer, Andrea Barham is the acceptable face of pedantry: while she is a big fan of the world, she feels there should be less wrongness and more rightness in it. Painfully aware of her inability to correct the bigger issues such as war, poverty and global warming, she is concentrating her skills on smaller issues more suited to her skills, which consists of 'looking stuff up'. By correcting common misconceptions, such as the belief that your heart stops when you sneeze, she is hoping that this will have a knock-on effect and eventually all wrongs will be righted, but she is not holding her breath (which, indidentally, one cannot die from, as is commonly believed). Please support her in her crusade.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Pedant's Revolt

Why Most Thing You Think are Right are Wrong

By Andrea Barham, Andrew Pinder

Michael O'Mara Books Limited

Copyright © 2011 Andrea Barham
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84317-587-2

Contents

Acknowledgements, 
Foreword, 
1 Art, Literature and Entertainment, 
2 Things That Are 'Bad' For You, 
3 Of Biblical Matters, 
4 Birds and Insects, 
5 William Shakespeare, 
6 Customs and Beliefs, 
7 Drink, 
8 Food, 
9 Things That Are 'Good' For You, 
10 Greeks and Romans, 
11 Events from History, 
12 Questionable Quotes, 
13 Historical Figures, 
14 Inventions, Achievements and Discoveries, 
15 Language and Grammar, 
16 Mammals, 
17 Grooming, 
18 Medical Matters, 
19 Sayings, 
20 Bodies, 
21 A Way with Words, 
The Final Fallacy, 
Select Bibliography, 
Useful Websites, 

CHAPTER 1

Art, Literature and Entertainment

Harpo Marx was mute

Adolph Arthur Marx, known as Harpo Marx, was perfectly able to speak. He was also a talented and self-taught harpist, which is how he got his nickname.

In November 2000, Radio Two's The Birth of Screen Comedy featured Harpo's son Bill Marx explaining why his father suddenly stopped speaking on stage. It came about as a result of a bad review, which said that 'his pantomime was wonderful, but when he opened his mouth to speak he ruined the image'. According to Bill Marx: 'Dad took it to heart and he just stopped talking.'

You can hear Harpo Marx explaining how he fell off a stool while playing the harp in a brothel at the following website: www.marx-brothers.org/living/harposp.htm

Toulouse-Lautrec was a dwarf

The French artist Toulouse-Lautrec may have been born with a congenital disorder, but it wasn't achondroplasia (dwarfism) as is commonly believed. Arnold Matthias, author of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, has discovered that it was much more likely to have been 'a hereditary bone disease (pyknodysostosis)'.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica reveals that at the age of thirteen, Toulouse-Lautrec broke his left thighbone, and just over a year later he fractured his right thighbone in a second mishap. The resulting damage caused to his bones left his legs atrophied and made it very difficult for him to walk. According to the findings of geneticist Philip R. Reilly, in his book Abraham Lincoln's DNA and Other Adventures in Genetics, as an adult Toulouse-Lautrec 'stood just shy of 4 feet 11 inches tall'.

A further misconception surrounding the artist concerns the name 'Toulouse'. Often regarded as his first name, Toulouse actually formed part of his surname. The Encyclopaedia Britannica cites his full name as 'Henri-Marie-Raymonde de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa'.

Errol Flynn was Irish or English or American

Dashing Hollywood actor Errol Flynn earned acclaim as a great swashbuckler in films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and The Sea Hawk (1940). Biographer Jeffrey Meyers reveals in his 2002 book Inherited Risk that in an effort to perpetuate Flynn's romantic screen image, Hollywood publicity departments portrayed Flynn as a 'mad Irishman', an 'elegant Englishman' and a 'bold American'.

However, Meyers reliably informs us that Flynn was the son of Australian scientist, Professor Theodore Leslie Thomson Flynn, and he was born 'on the cold, strange island of Tasmania' in 1909. Therefore Flynn was neither Irish, English nor American, but Australian by birth.

Humpt

Edition details

• Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1843175878
• ISBN 13: 9781843175872
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192