The Encyclopedia of Useless Information

Discover what all the other encyclopedias leave out

This is the superbly satisfying compendium of weird factoids too interesting to be contained in your average encyclopedia. Daring to cross-reference the un-cross-reference-able, to alphabetize what cannot be alphabetized, and to deliver the highest concentration of fun that can fit in one book’s spine, this information is too useless to waste:

In Denmark, pigs go ‘knor’; in Germany, horses go ‘prrrh’; in ancient Greece, dogs went ‘au au.’ Italians sneeze ‘ecci ecci.’

A teacher in Italy was disciplined in 1996 for passing students exam answers hidden in salami sandwiches.

In 1957 the U.S. air force completed a survey of the Atlantic Ocean but refused to divulge its width on the grounds that the information might be of military use to the Russians.

In Paris in 1740 a cow was hanged in public following its conviction for sorcery.