Oops: 20 Life Lessons from the Fiascoes That Shaped America

Fun but not-too-serious look at mostly 20th-century pop culture flops and "life lessons" based on them. The life lessons are thin and mostly tongue-in-cheek, but the short recaps of 20 fiascoes such as flying cars, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse, and Leon Spinks move quickly and provide their share of amusement and illumination of seldom-seen corners of history and technology.

This book is an entertaining and informative look of some of the major fiascoes of American popular history. I have witnessed or at least heard about the majority of the mistakes displayed here. For example, I remember seeing the John Hancock Tower partially covered in plywood on childhood trips to Boston (although the book doesn't mention this, I believe that the surviving panes of glass went to Building #19, a locally famous salvage/overstock store here in the Boston area, for sale for the uses described by the authors). The authors do a good job in filling out the facts behind the fiascoes (I didn't realize that I wasn't the only one who couldn't stand Clippy). As a previous reviewer stated, the one problem that I did have with the book is a lack of a photo section, as items such as paper dresses, the Dodge LaFemme, the rockin' Tacoma Narrows Bridge & Flying Cars need to be seen. I also didn't care too much for the "receipe" section that ended each chapter. Despite this, I do recommend this book to be added to your own Dynamic File of Trivia.

This hilarious book is lots of fun to read and even more fun to tell people about. You'll be amazed that you haven't heard of these things before. Smith and Kiger have this way of rolling out odd little details in a dry way that really build a humorous picture without trying to be funny. My favorite story was about 10 cent beer night at the Cleveland Indians baseball game in 1974. They start by telling how Cleveland was suffering from an image problem because the river had recently caught fire and the Cleveland Mayor had ignited his hair with a blow torch at a ribbon cutting ceremony. You know the rest of the story will only get better. Buy it. Read it. Quote it.

In a very entertaining and informative account of what the authors considers "fiascos", the book narrates various incidents, fads, and "strategic thinking" that were...well, not so successful. A range of 'stories' from religious movements founded on interesting sex mores, y2k bug, paper fashion, battle of towers in Boston, plans for assasination of Castro, Cleveland Indians' beer promotion, and Edison killing an elephant (!) are all part of this book. Some stories are so interesting, it is a surprise that they have been obscure so far. On that front, the author scores full points. It is a little disappointing that the authors were not able to locate any interesting pictures or photos of the events narrated. Instead they focus on a very amateurish-looking "ingridient list" for each of the 'fiasco' narrated in the chapter. The book is very neatly organized - each chapter focusing on a specific event/trend. Quite humorous writing style adds to the enjoyment of the book. A good read.