Customer Reviews

A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown: Essays for a Scientific Age

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This book, out of print for approximately 25 years, was written to prove that scientists really DO have a sense of humor. It is a collection of humorous short stories each loosely based upon some scientific issue, idea or concern. The title story typifies what the reader will find within!

The one essay on "Diggin the We-uns" makes the book worth whatever you pay for it. Hilarious article written in the 1960's about a fictitious future civilization (in Africa) uncovering artifacts on THE GREAT WESTERN CONTINENT. They know little about the people who lived back in the 20th century, but archaelogists have named them "We-uns" since so many artifacts have US stamped on them. They have determined that the capital of the We-uns was a place called "Pound Laundry." "Pound" (according those future academicians) means to clean or wash, and "Laundry" is a unit of weight (ton). Get the humor.... "Washing -- ton." Oh, Groan. Nobody knows why The "We-uns" disappeared, but the experts believe it they were done in by the "More We-uns," based on artifacts which have been found with USSR on them.

... if you don't like science, you won't like this book. But if you've spent too many hours in a lab coat working on your advisor's projects while you own languishes in a corner, this might appeal.

Including short works by John Updike, Leo Szilard (!), Lester del Rey, and many more, the humor is closer to "Parkinson's Law" (C. Northcote Parkinson is in this book too!) than to "Saturday Night Live" ... so it won't appeal to everyone ... but if you appreciate the difference between a lipid and a lipstick, you may enjoy this.

My favorites in the book: "Psychoanalysis of Missle Failures" and "Hiawatha's Lipid"