Book of Answers: The New York Public Library Telephone Reference Service's Most Unusual and Enter

How many of these questions can you answer without calling the New York Public Library's Telephone Reference Service?

Who really designed the American flag?
How hot is the sun's surface?
How does quicksand work?
When was the Ark of the Covenant last seen?
Who sat at the Algonquin Round Table?
Where does the name "The Grateful Dead" come from?
Why is Christmas abbreviated as Xmas?
Can any creatures besides humans get a sunburn?
How many muscles does it take to smile? To frown?
Why are rabbits' feet considered good luck?

You could, of course, do all the painstaking research yourself. Or you could pick up the phone and call the resourceful, erudite, quick-witted librarians of the New York Public Library's Telephone Reference Service, Tel Ref, for whom questions like these are all in a day's work. For the past twenty years, Tel Ref has met the information needs of a public as diverse as the subjects in the Library's catalog, and now they've compiled their most interesting, unusual, and most-often-asked queries into The Book of Answers -- a delight for browsers, a treasure trove of fascinating information, and the perfect companion to The New York Public Library Desk Reference.

THE BOOK OF ANSWERS is another of those books that can best be reviewed by citing some of the questions and answers that make up the text. The librarians' ability to answer some of the questions asked makes one wonder how they are able to do so.

Here are just a few examples.

When asked about the most unlikely mating between dogs, Ms. Berliner and her staff came up with a mating between a male Dachshund and a female Great Dane. The resulting litter contained 13 "Great Dachshunds" who were distinguished by their short legs and large heads.

For "Lucy" fans: "I Love Lucy" ran for 6 seasons from 1951 to 1957.

A bit of baseball trivia: The first fine in baseball was levied on June 19, 1846 in the amount of 6 cents for swearing at an umpire.

More trivia: Of all the known animal species, only pigs and human beings get sunburned.

For convenience, the book is broken up into 27 categories which even include one of trick questions such as: "Where in the Bible does it say that cleanliness is next to godliness?" The short answer is "Nowhere."

There are lots of questions and answers on serious subjects such as history, culture, language, fine arts, etc. THE BOOK OF ANSWERS is ideal for flipping open to any page at random and finding some interesting bit of trivia. What fun!


fun book   December 5, 2002
amy (south florida)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

As a reference librarian, it's always fun to have confirmation that other libraries get strange questions. This is a fun compendium of popular and not-so-popular questions.

That said, I am more than slightly disturbed that they do not cite their sources. I'm not saying that I doubt the answers that are given, it's just unusual that they're not not saying where the answers came from....

But it's still a fun book.


Love those librarians   March 25, 2001
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Reference librarians are the colest, and this book proves it. It's fun to pick a random page and learn something new-- perfect for the passenger to read out loud on a road trip.


Fun and informative   July 5, 2000
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

This book is fun and informative. There are some interesting questions and excellent answers in here. There is a previous reviewer who may have some issues so let me clarify. This book is not for people who are terribly uneducated. This book is for people who question things and would like to find the answers in an easy to read format. In short, it is not for the ignorant but for the curious.