The Explainer [Paperback]

Slate Magazine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2004

What happens to recalled meat?
What’s the difference between a serial killer and a spree killer?
How do you stop a lava flow?
Does homeowner’s insurance cover murder?
And what is Ovaltine anyway?

Answers to these and other fascinating questions you never thought to ask, from the writers at Slate Magazine

An entertaining and genuinely informative compilation of answers to some of life's most improbable questions, from the writers of the online magazine Slate. Often inspired by events in the news, the “Explainer” column asks the questions we never think to ask, or that we’re too embarrassed to admit we don’t know how to answer. Filling in these overlooked blanks of our daily lives, the book provides memorable tidbits for conversations, further rumination, or important context as we follow current events from day to day. Full of fascinating information about unlikely but important subjects, The Explainer will entertain and inform anyone who has ever stopped to wonder who runs Antarctica, how cell phones can reveal your location, or whether one can live off lizard meat.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

If any regular column calls for a compilation, The Explainer is it. The Microsoft-funded online magazine Slate has been doling out answers to offbeat questions for years, becoming king of the information-rich deadpan response. How do you figure out the odds of an asteroid hitting the earth? How did the U.S. get a naval base in Cuba? Slate knows. And according to former editor Michael Kinsley (who pens the introduction), it's because its writers are willing to confess they don't know everything. "We don't like to admit, even to ourselves, that we often don't know what the hell others among us are talking about," Kinsley acknowledges. But "very little is beneath the dignity of Slate," and so they take on the obvious queries that everyone wants to ask, but nobody ever does. For this volume, questions are arranged by quirky subject (like "Guns and Ammo"), and there's a special richness to its Washington-related queries, perhaps due to Kinsley's background as a D.C. pundit and general policy wonk. And though a rotating cast of writers has been behind the column, they manage a consistent tone. Alas, instead of always playing the straight man to the natural comedy of the questions, the editors don't have much fun with their answers (e.g., they refrain from ripping into Hollywood's fad du jour when facing a question like, "Where does Kabbalah come from?"). But the book has its own relentless charm, and the utilitarian premise makes it a winner. Besides, who else is going to tell readers what happens to recalled meat?
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Here's another one of those books in which readers get answers to quirky questions: Is it possible to survive eating only lizard meat? Who decides when a country is in a recession? But this question-and-answer book is a little different. As usual, the questions come from readers (in this case, they were e-mailed to the online magazine Slate, where a column called "The Explainer" appears). The questions, however, aren't answered by appropriate experts; rather, they are answered by whichever Slate writer is the day's designated Explainer. And, whereas most columns like this one have a lead time of days or weeks, the Explainers only have a matter of hours to come up with a response to what are usually very tough questions. This somehow makes the book more interesting, perhaps even more impressive. It's also nice to know that we, too, could answer our own questions, if we had the proper resources available. That's the real message of this book: most of the time, in today's world, experts are unnecessary. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (March 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400034264
• ISBN-13: 978-1400034260
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,285,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My Second Favorite Slate Feature, May 16, 2004

By 

takingadayoff "takingadayoff" (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Explainer (Paperback)

The Explainer is a regular feature of the online magazine, Slate. It answers questions you have about the current news, such as what is a spiderhole and how did it get its name? Or how do you pronounce Abu Ghraib? These questions and their answers aren't in the book, but you can find them in the archives of Slate.

The book compiles some of the more intriguing questions from the past few years, such as Could Bill Clinton become president again? (The short answer is yes, but don't hold your breath.) Who can be buried at Arlington Cemetery? What happens if you don't answer the census questionnaire?

Slate's reporters, in response to reader questions and often their own curiosity, find experts in the appropriate field and ask the question. They make the expert explain the answer until they understand it, then write a short column explaining the answer to their readers. In this way, we learn how to pronounce Niger, how to become a weapons inspector, and what is Ovaltine, anyway.

The Explainer is a compact book that is fun to read in small doses or all at once. The explanations are only about a page or two each and clustered into about two dozen short chapters such as Dining Out, Medicine, Flight, and Death. Although I usually read the Explainer online, I thought I'd catch a few that I'd missed. Either I missed a lot of these explanations or I have a really poor memory. Regardless, I enjoyed reading these Explainer columns and look forward to more Slate publications.

(My favorite Slate feature is Bushisms.)

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you wanted to know, but were too afraid too ask, July 8, 2004

By 

Trevor Helm Campbell (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Explainer (Paperback)

The premise of this book is great: The news (print, TV, magazine, and internet) puts out stories with assumed facts in there, yet most people don't know the basis for these facts, since there is just too much information out there for everyone to know. For example, one always hears about some great blizzard, and that 5 inches of snow was layed down. If you are like me, you have heard this, or something similar, many, many times, and you know what it means, but yet you have no idea exactly how they figured out that 12 inches of snow fell last night. Well, this book answers that question.

Another great example is the essay on how corking a bat helps a batter. One not only learns how a bat is corked and how it helps the batter's performance, but you also learn that a corked bat would probably DECREASE the distance of Sammy Sosa's hits. (This has to do with the physics equation p=mv, momentum = mass x velocity. Since a corked bat weighs less than an uncorked one, the momentum for a corked bat, assuming the same velocity for both, will be less than for an uncorked one.)

If you like trivia books, this is definitely a keeper; if you don't like the normal run-of-the-mill trivia books, you will probably like this one, since it isn't your standard question and answer book that lays out the facts without any cultural/political/real-life relevance. Who doesn't want to know what happens to your social security number when you die. Is it retired, or recycled? Read the book, and you'll find out.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, March 5, 2005

By 

A. Vegan (Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Explainer (Paperback)

Do you have an annoying friend who claims to know everything? Pick up a copy of this book and I guarantee you'll stump Mr./Ms. Know It All.

It's a fun book that you can read all at once or flip through to sections that interest you. Either way, you'll probably learn something new. It even has a section of questions that you want to ask but are afraid to, and no they're not sex related.
Eg. Money Laundering: What is it and how it's done. That's something I've wanted to know about but it's not really a great conversation piece.

*What exactly is Ovaltine?
*Can you patent common features of the Internet?
*Is there cocain on your money?
*What happens to recalled meat?
*Does the president need a passport?

This book is full of useful and of course useless trivia. It would make a great gift for any trivia junkie.