The Field Guide to the North American Bird [Paperback]

Adam Blank (Author), Lauren Blank (Author), Michael Moore (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2004

Let your finger do the talking!There is one gesture that transcends language, race, gender, and age: the bird. Throughout time, man has brandished his middle finger to express anger or insolence, to scorn or to provoke. FIELD GUIDE TO THE NORTH AMERICAN BIRD documents great moments of creativity, ingenuity, and utter stupidity in the history of the one-finger salute. With step-by-step illustrations for more than 50 ways to give someone the finger, this handy little guide will have you flipping off with skill and style. Brush up on classic birds like the Peel the Banana and the Volume (“Can you hear this? . . . Or do you want me to turn it up?”), then expand your vocabulary with more sophisticated birds like the Cell Phone, the Pulley, and the Helium Balloon. For the globetrotting bird-flipper, FIELD GUIDE also showcases Birds of the World, so you can piss off people wherever you go. You'll find the perfect bird for any job, whether tormenting your little sister, covertly rebelling against your boss, or telling that tailgater exactly what you think of him.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

* An illustrated guide to everyone’s favorite hand gesture, complete with a history of the bird, bird applications and etiquette, and how-tos for executing more than 50 birds.

* Brush up on classic birds like the Peel the Banana and the Volume ("Can you hear this? . . . Or do you want me to turn it up?"), then expand your vocabulary with more advanced birds like the Cell Phone, the Pulley, and the Helium Balloon.

*Includes a chapter on "Birds of the World," for the globetrotting bird-flipper. Flash the finger from China to the Czech Republic.

About the Author

ADAM BLANK is the founder of Jigsaw Films, a documentary film company in Brooklyn, New York.
LAUREN BLANK is rock climbing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
MICHAEL MOORE is creative director for a product development and interactive design company in Brooklyn, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (May 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580085741
• ISBN-13: 978-1580085748
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.3 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science > Biological Sciences > Zoology > Ornithology
  • #66 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Entertainment > Humor > Parodies
  • #82 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science > Biological Sciences > Zoology > General

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Watershed Moment in Literary History., December 1, 2004

By 

Jeremiah Ezekiel Amos Isoquant (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Field Guide to the North American Bird (Paperback)

Once in a great while a book is authored that is so profound, so intellectually stunning, so spiritually affirming, and so sexually stimulating, that it becomes part of our shared heritage.

This is that book.

Most reasonable people ruminate on the ever-coarsening of society and ask how we got to this point. Blank looks at society and asks if we are coarse enough. What he says is, "No." But in this, as in all things, Blank is an enigma--a mystery wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a comfy fleece blanket when he watches t.v..

I give it nearly my highest rating (4 porkchops out of 5) because I feel he made up some of these dramatic gesticulations just to pad the length in some sort of shady "bonus" arrangement. He may have narrowed the margins too. But still.

This book demonstrates that there are many, many ways to physically contort yourself in aid of insulting someone. The conservative cognoscenti--you know who they are--once formed a "prayer circle" around Ten Speed Press to prevent it from leaving the premises. In fact someone from Georgia promised in a chilling phone threat that the venerable publishing house would get "blowed up real good-like" if it ever got published. Luckily, the First Amendment and questionable taste prevailed.

Read the book THEY don't want you to read! As an added incentive you'll get a 40 second recorded phone call from Blank thanking you for your purchase, and by purchasing you'll help support his quest to finish his pretentious, ponderous follow-up tome: "A Brief History of Time: The Revenge."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars funny AND useful, July 10, 2004

By 

juliarabig (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Field Guide to the North American Bird (Paperback)

If you're stuck in a rut--weakly lifting your middle finger only when you've been cut off in traffic and otherwise resorting to lackluster verbal retorts, you need this book! We have so much in this world to get mad about and so few gestures for expressing that anger...until now. Blank, Blank and Moore offer a lavishly illustrated, thoroughly researched compendium of insults that will leave you (and your middle finger)itching for a conflict!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hysterical...and useful, June 24, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Field Guide to the North American Bird (Paperback)

If you live in New York City, you can never have too many options for telling the world how you feel. Come to think of it, that's true no matter where you live. Each page of this brilliant little tome offers a new and creative variation on the classic flip-off--along with hilarious illustrations and text. Both my sides and my middle finger are aching.