From Publishers Weekly
Chances are slim that you'll ever need-or want-to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel or tow an iceberg to a drought-stricken nation, but improbability certainly hasn't stopped the extreme-situation how-to juggernaut launched by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht, creators of the original Worst-Case Scenario book and its multiplying cousins. But while the Piven-Borgenicht volumes offer advice that just might be helpful-it's possible, after all, that you would someday need to jump off a building into a dumpster-Fulghum takes the loony route, offering tips on how to do what you never should: chop down an old-growth sequoia, sink a submarine, break into Fort Knox, Buckingham Palace or Area 51. Fulghum's dry sense of humor enlivens the chapters of offbeat challenges, each with its own shopping list of items needed to pull the stunts off. To sink a submarine, for example, "one Oliver Hazard Perry-class (FFG-7) antisubmarine frigate" is necessary ("arrange for use through the U.S. Department of Defense," he notes). Fulghum even suggests how long each project will take (six months to a year to form an independent nation, three to five days to chop down that 200-foot sequoia). This is a detailed, amusing and utterly useless read for anyone who wants to know how to do something zany-without actually wanting to do it.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
From the author of Like Father, Like Son (1996) comes this comical how-to guide for people with really weird ambitions. Want to break into Fort Knox? Sink an enemy submarine? Catch the Loch Ness Monster? Fulghum tells you how, sort of. The book is formatted like a typical how-to guide: each chapter contains a list of necessary supplies, step-by-step instructions, and an estimate of the time required to complete the project. But listen to this: two of the necessary items for breaking into Fort Knox are an outgoing personality and a truck full of cows. Smuggling top-secret documents requires the services of two Boy Scouts stationed on either side of the U.S.-Canadian border and a reversible windbreaker. It's this combination of the mundane and the bizarre that keeps the chuckles coming. Although the book is not quite a spoof-- the instructions often make a delirious kind of sense--Fulghum's tongue is firmly in his cheek. (The goal of breaking into Buckingham Palace, for example, is to short-sheet the prince of Wales' bed). Call this one Mission: Hysterical. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
