Whistle Stopper - Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition

	List Price: $27.99 Our Price: $14.53 Your Save: $ 13.46 ( 48% ) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 081 EAN: 9780316018425 ISBN: 0316018422 Label: Little, Brown and Company Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 256 Publication Date: 2007-10-30 Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Release Date: 2007-10-30 Studio: Little, Brown and Company
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Banned at Junior High School Comment: Apparently social satire is not a popular topic among today's educators. Our son was suspended for three days from Junior high school for bringing this book to school and showing it to some classmates. My wife and I did not go through the book in detail and realized (too late) that it does contain some offensive language, pictures, and racial references. It was a lot easier to find this offensive content after a school district employee spent an afternoon flagging all of the offending pages with post-its. In my opinion it was all (well mostly all) relevant social commentary, but offensive non the less. We thought the punishment pretty extreme, given the offensive content is minimal compared to an episode of "South Park" or any version of Grand Theft Auto. I guess you can chalk this one up to bad parenting. Too bad really, as the book humorously attacks some pretty serious issues, it easily engages young adults, and promotes a lot of good discussion. Customer Rating: Summary: Not for the thin-skinned Comment: This book is hilarious but it's also about as un-PC as it gets. If you're sensitive about that, it isn't for you. ODW is funny from cover to cover, and some of it is laugh-out-loud, in the manner of an insult comic's take on the world. The Onion cleverly and often outrageously exploits every national, ethnic, and cultural stereotype there is, both historic and present day. If you can get into that, don't miss this book, and don't miss a word of it including the tiny map notations. If insult comedy bothers you, and no corner of the globe escaped their merciless barbs, spend your money on something else. I've bought 3 more copies as gifts for family members. When I showed them mine, they so enjoyed leafing through they couldn't wait to borrow it and show it to others themselves. I doubted I'd get it back, though, so I got them their own. It's a terrific gift, as long as you're sure you won't be inadvertently stepping on tender toes. Customer Rating: Summary: Amazing Comment: This is probably the funniest and most clever book I have ever read. You will laugh so hard and so often that you'll never want to put it down. Buy it! Customer Rating: Summary: Get this book! Comment: this is actually a great coffee table book for enjoying with friends. We read it aloud, looking up our favorite places, and laughed hysterically at times. Of course the humor is at times, sick, but it's what you would expect from the onion. Very well done. We have given it as a gift several times already. Customer Rating: Summary: Funny but not for the faint of heart Comment: I found this book to be laugh-out-loud funny. But since I was giving it as a gift (yeah, ok, I read it first) I was a little concerned about some of the jokes and gags being built around the misfortunes of some countries and peoples. If that won't bother you, then enjoy! More Reviews
Editorial Reviews: Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of The Planet Earth, 73rd Edition features incorrect statistics on all of the Earth's 168, 182, or 196 independent nations. It also features maps, including a fold-out world map at actual size. Readers will learn about every country from Afghanistan, "Allah's Cat Box," to the Ukraine, "The Bridebasket of Europe." Today's news-parody consumer cannot possibly understand made-up current events without the context of fake world history and geography. That is why The Onion is publishing a world atlas: to help us. Our Dumb World is an invaluable tool for any reader interested in overthrowing a weakened government in East Asia, exploiting a developing nation in Africa, or for directions to tonight's party at Erica's. It is a reference guide to 250,000 of the world's most important places, such as North Korea's Trench of Victory, the Great Human Pyramid of Egypt, and Saudi Arabia's superhighway, the Mohammedobahn.