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From the author's preface:
Some people call them `imponderables' or `rhetoricals', but to the rest of us
they are just silly questions. They do not necessarily have answers, though
some of them do, but trying to answer them
will mark you out as an incurable
nerd.
But the questions are always amusing and often interesting because
they concern the little contradictions in life that we all come across and accept
without thinking about. Why for example do we write things down but type
them up? Why do ships carry a cargo, while cars carry a shipment? And how
did the guy who made the first clock know what time to set it to?
This is philosophy for the man and woman in the street, but stuff the real
philosophers are not able to answer. Our response can vary from `Yes, I've
often wondered about that', through `How the hell should I know?' to `Who
cares? This is the biggest collection of sillies ever assembled, over a thousand
in all, and by the time you have finished reading them, you will begin
to spot new questions for yourself, so it is a game anyone can learn and play.
Have fun reading them and be sure to use them to confuse and amuse
others --- teachers, students ,parents, spouses, bosses, employees, and anyone
you want to take down a peg.
Des MacHale
was born in Castlebar, Co.Mayo, Ireland.
He holds
B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mathematical Science from
University College Galway and a Ph.D. degree in Algebra from the
University of Keele in the UK. He is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics
at University College Cork, where he taught for forty years. He is author
of over sixty published books on such diverse topics as
Lateral Thinking Puzzles (with Paul Sloane), Wit, Jokes, Puzzles,
George Boole,John Ford's movie The Quiet Man, and giving up smoking.
Among his interests are Geology (in which he has a diploma), photography,
broadcasting, book collecting, recreational mathematics, humour,
family history, and puzzles of all kinds. He and his long-suffering
wife Anne have five wonderful children and three even more wonderful
grandchildren and live in Cork.
