From the international bestselling author of Red Herrings and White Elephants--a curious guide to the hidden histories of classic nursery rhymes.
Who was Mary Quite Contrary, or Georgie Porgie? How could Hey Diddle Diddle offer an essential astronomy lesson? Do Jack and Jill actually represent the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette? And if Ring Around the Rosie isn't about the plague, then what is it really about?
This book is a quirky, curious, and sometimes sordid look at the truth behind popular nursery rhymes that uncovers the strange tales that inspired...

The fun and fascinating follow-up to the international bestseller Red Herrings and White Elephants
Why do people put their "skeletons in a closet," "have a hunch," "get the cold shoulder," "get dressed up to the nines," or "call a spade a spade?" These phrases are used every day, yet most people have little or no idea where most of them come from. In Black Sheep and Lame Ducks, Albert Jack takes readers on a journey through the curious- and often bizarre-origins of hundreds of their favorite idioms and expressions.
For example, "wearing your heart on your...

Have you heard the one about
Walt Disney s frozen body?
Coca-Cola owning Santa Claus?
Alligators living in New York City sewers?
We all love a good story. But where do the urban legends, conspiracy theories, and old wives tales we hear every day really originate? Albert Jack explores the best, strangest, and funniest of the tales so many of us take as gospel, and uncovers some eye-popping true stories that are even more far-fetched than their mythical counterparts. From Robin Hood to JFK s brain, from hamsters under carpets to mysterious travelers, you ll never be short of a...