An Uncommon History of Common Courtesy

An Uncommon History of Common Courtesy
Author: Bethanne Patrick
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2011
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1426208138

With engaging and artfully presented text, including sidebars on media mavens throughout history, social gaffes, and archaic manners, this book is as entertaining as it is informative. Readers delve into cultural similarities and differences through lively passages, colorful photography, and sidebars on unique history. Topics include Courtesies and Greetings, Communication and Correspondence, Dining and Entertaining, Hierarchies and Protocol, Hospitality and Occasions, Amusements and Institutions, Boundaries and Cultural Differences, New Technology and Old Manners. Whether you are planning a trip abroad or just want a fascinating, browsable read, find out what is universal and what is merely a product of one's culture.

An Uncommon History of Common Things

An Uncommon History of Common Things
Author: Bethanne Patrick
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2015-09-16
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1426212275

Pop culture fans and trivia lovers will delight in National Geographic’s highly browsable, freewheeling compendium of customs, notions and inventions that reflect human ingenuity throughout history. Dip into any page and discover extraordinary hidden details in the everyday that will inform, amuse, astonish, and surprise. From hand tools to holidays to weapons to washing machines, this book features hundreds of colorful illustrations, timelines, sidebars, and more as it explores just about every subject under the sun. Who knew that indoor plumbing has been around for 4,600 years, but punctuation, capital letters, and the handy spaces between written words only date back to the Dark Ages? Or that ancient soldiers baked a kind of pizza on their shields— when they weren’t busy flying kites to frighten their foes?

Making Curriculum Pop

Making Curriculum Pop
Author: Pam Goble
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2016-02-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1631980629

From body art to baseball cards, comics to cathedrals, pie charts to power ballads . . . students need help navigating today’s media-rich world. And educators need help teaching today’s new media literacy. To be literate now means being able to read, write, listen, speak, view, and represent across all media—including both print and nonprint texts, such as film, TV, podcasts, websites, visual art, fashion, architecture, landscape, and music. This book offers secondary teachers in all content areas a flexible, interdisciplinary approach to integrate these literacies into their curriculum. Students form cooperative learning groups to evaluate media texts from various perspectives (artist, producer, sociologist, sound mixer, economist, poet, set designer, and more) and show their thinking using unique graphic organizers aligned to the Common Core State Standards

The Book of Nice

The Book of Nice
Author: Josh Chetwynd
Publisher: Workman Publishing
Total Pages: 445
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0761172947

Nice is the secret ingredient to a better life. It makes us happy. It may even be what makes us civilizedÑwhen we say thank you, shake hands, send flowers, we're doing the nice things that bring people together. ?A compulsive and chunky book for lovers of trivia, popular history, customs, and cultureÑand a perfect gift to say Òyou're niceÓÑThe Book of Nice is an entertaining, quirky compendium of those signs, traditions, and expressions that we so often take for granted, yet turn out to be quite fascinating. It's about why we cover a yawn (originally to prevent evil spirits from entering our bodies, now to hide the impression that something's boring us). About holiday traditionsÑit's thanks to Guy Lombardo's December 31 broadcast in 1929 that we now sing ÒAuld Lang SyneÓ on New Year's Eve. About customary offeringsÑthe wedding cake evolved out of the Roman use of wheat as a symbol of fertility (and it's much tastier than bits of grain). And about those simple yet essential nicetiesÑhow Thomas Edison championed an obscure term, ÒhelloÓ (if Alexander Graham Bell had gotten his way, we'd all be saying ÒahoyÓ). Why not put a little nice in your day?

Alternative Facts

Alternative Facts
Author: Alex Palmer
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2017-10-09
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1435166280

Did you hear that Pope Francis endorsed Trump? Or that you have to pay to perform “Happy Birthday to You” in public? How about that the Soviet Union once banned microwaves out of fear that they were spreading diseases? These are all totally true things!* Everyone is saying so. There’s a lot of weird news out there today (thanks, Internet!). But given the speed of modern media, often these stories get disseminated faster than they can be fact-checked. As Mark Twain once said, “a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on.” (Actually, that’s been attributed to about a half-dozen different people in various publications, but still, the point remains.) In Alternative Facts, author Alex Palmer (Weird-o-pedia) collects 200 of the oddest stories he could find, ranging from history to pop culture and science, which have been disseminated over the years, whether true or not. You’ll have to flip to the back of the book to find out which ones were real and which were not; but you couldn’t be fooled that easily, right? [* Actually, just one of those things is really really true; can you guess which one?]

Sorry!

Sorry!
Author: Henry Hitchings
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2013-11-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0374710597

A humorous and charming investigation into what it really means to have proper manners Most of us know a bit about what passes for good manners—holding doors open, sending thank-you notes, no elbows on the table—and we certainly know bad manners when we see them. But where has this patchwork of beliefs and behaviors come from? How did manners develop? How do they change? And why do they matter so much? In examining English manners, Henry Hitchings delves into the English character and investigates what it means to be English. Sorry! presents an amusing, illuminating, and quirky audit of British manners. From basic table manners to appropriate sexual conduct, via hospitality, chivalry, faux pas, and online etiquette, Hitchings traces the history of England's customs and courtesies. Putting some of the most astute observers of humanity—including Jane Austen and Samuel Pepys—under the microscope, he uses their lives and writings to pry open the often downright peculiar secrets of the English character. Hitchings's blend of history, anthropology, and personal journey helps us understand the bizarre and contested cultural baggage that goes along with our understanding of what it means to have good manners.

Great Objectives

Great Objectives
Author: Robert Finch
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 542
Release: 2016-05-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1524500712

In his book Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill refers to the great objects of human life. We may assume that that what Mill calls an object is the same as an objective in modern parlance. The examples of great objectives that Mill cites include power, fame, and money. One wonders how seriously Mill was actually endorsing such aims to be the overarching objectives of living or whether he was simply expressing his finding that many people actually do take such aims as these for life. The contention is that Mill was indeed recognizing that people do choose such goals in life. After all, happiness has been recognized as an objective of life at least since the time of Aristotle, and virtue has a similarly ancient pedigree. It is quite common for ordinary people to adopt such mottos as Healthy, wealthy, and wise as aims for life. But we know that having more than one such value can lead to conflicts. This had been a concern to Sidgwick as well as other nineteenth-century moralists. A resolution to the problem was found by the time of the twentieth century, when it was realized that we should not try to achieve definite objectives, but instead look to some other procedure, such as a variety of evolution, to shape our objectives. In that case, we make plans and evaluate them, as we proceed. We should use our values, as Dewey recommended, for guideposts. The book discusses the methods of arriving at such plans and weighs some of the ethical and moral problems an individual or a society might face at the present time.

An Uncommon History of Common Things

An Uncommon History of Common Things
Author: National Geographic
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2015-10-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1426215843

From hand tools to holidays to weapons to washing machines, "An Uncommon History of Common Things" features hundreds of colorful illustrations, timelines, sidebars, and more as it explores just about every subject under the sun. Who knew that indoor plumbing has been around for 4,600 years, but punctuation, capital letters, and the handy spaces between written words only date back to the Dark Ages? Or that ancient soldiers baked a kind of pizza on their shields--when they weren't busy flying kites to frighten their foes? Every page of this quirky compendium catalogs something fascinating, surprising, or serendipitous. A lively, incomparably browsable read for history buffs, pop culture lovers, and anyone who relishes the odd and extraordinary details hidden in the everyday, it will inform, amuse, astonish--and alter the way you think about the clever creatures we call humans.

An Uncommon History of Common Things, Volume 2

An Uncommon History of Common Things, Volume 2
Author: National Geographic
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2015-10-27
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1426216165

This vivid, engrossing book reveals the fascinating stories behind the objects in your world, what you wear, what you eat, what entertains you, and more. Discover the history behind the world's tallest skyscrapers, find out when people first started drinking caffeine and why it wakes us up, and learn how GPS came to be. For those who loved the first installment of An Uncommon History of Common Things come even more short entries illustrated by full color photos. These incorporate quirky anecdotes about the history of everyday objects, including the personalities and pitfalls along the path to innovation and unusual facts behind things we frequently see and use. Smart, surprising, and informative, this book is the ultimate resource for history and trivia buffs alike. Dive into these entertaining pages and let your curiosity to run wild!

Uncommon Courtesy

Uncommon Courtesy
Author: Jennifer M Wood
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2011-04-18
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1440526559

This book is the short slap to the back of the head most people need nowadays. In a world that's more likely to flip the bird than hold the door, it's their reminder of proper behavior. You'll receive a (re-)schooling in manners with lessons split up by situation, then tackled by topic. Each note corrects conduct that's become all too common, like . . . Bad Behavior: Popping a piece of gum into your mouth midconversation, and stressing your point by snapping it. Courteous Fix: If you're going to have a piece of gum while talking to someone, be sure to offer your companion a piece--and keep your mouth closed as you chew. You want your breath to be fresh. Not your attitude. It's a reminder that it wasn't always out of place to be polite.