Book of Answers: The New York Public Library Telephone Reference Service's Most Unusual and Enter

How many of these questions can you answer without calling the New York Public Librarys Telephone Reference Service? Who really designed the American flag? How hot is the suns surface? How does quicksand work? When was the Ark of the Covenant last seen? Who sat at the Algonquin Round Table? Where does the name The Grateful Dead come from? Why is Christmas abbreviated as Xmas? Can any creatures besides humans get a sunburn? How many muscles does it take to smile? To frown? Why are rabbits feet considered good luck? You could of course do all the painstaking research yourself. Or you could pick up the phone and call the resourceful erudite quick-witted librarians of the New York Public Librarys Telephone Reference Service Tel Ref for whom questions like these are all in a days work. For the past twenty years Tel Ref has met the information needs of a public as diverse as the subjects in the Librarys catalog and now theyve compiled their most interesting unusual and most-often-asked queries into The Book of Answers -- a delight for browsers a treasure trove of fascinating information and the perfect companion to The New York Public Library Desk Reference.