Tom Connor

Jim Downey

This informative and occasionally bizarre collection of American inventions will help you discover successful and significant ideas—along with the frivolous and utterly useless ones lost to history. Innovation and entrepreneurism appear inextricably woven into the American DNA. Throughout American history, the great inventors and innovators gazed into the future and saw the products and services that would transform the world. While passionate about creating this new thing called a democracy, our Founding Fathers were also driven to change the way humans lived and worked—to complete everyday tasks faster, easier, and more efficiently. As of 2018, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office had granted its ten millionth patent. But with over 500,000 applications now being filed annually, fewer than half of these applicants will be granted patents and far fewer still—an estimated one percent—will realize commercial success, according to the Office. Some are flawed by mistakes or missing details, others too ridiculous to take seriously, still others simply ahead of their time. From the brightest and most innovative to the wackiest, most bizarre, and downright crazy, this collection of 100 patents includes funny and informative descriptions and original illustrations, all the while letting you in on what most successful patents have in common, what inspired their creators, and how great inventors view the world.

The Best and Brightest, Dumbest and Dimmest Inventions in American History

Brainstorms and Mindfarts

Paulo Vicente

A field guide to entranceways for homeowners looking to enhance the character, value, and appeal of their home looks at a variety of decorative architectural elements while illustrating nearly one hundred entrance styles that range from English Colonial to Art Deco.

The Language of Doors

Russell Kramer

The companion cookbook for Warner Brothers' charming and hilarious new movie, My Fellow Americans, co-starring Jack Lemmon, James Garner, Lauren Bacall, and Dan Ackroyd, Hail to the Chef! offers a humorous salute to the palate featuring recipes for more than 100 favorite American dishes. of photos.

Hail to the Chef!

With more and more people discovering the pleasures of a good smoke, interest in cigars has ignited, and cigar smoking has become the hottest trend of the 90s. Today, such high-profile people as Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenneger, David Letterman, and Madonna are often seen sporting stogies, and according to the Cigar Association of America 3.5 billion cigars were sold in 1995, with sales of premium cigars up an astounding 45 percent. For this growing number of aficionados comes The Handmade Cigar Collectors Guide and Journal. The rich journal pages provide space for the user to affix the cigar band and record vital statistics for the cigars they sample, such as draw, ring gauge, flavor and burn. What's more, these pages are adorned with sepia-toned images of famous cigar smokers and memorable quotes. The guide section features never-before-published information on how to locate, acquire and preserve the worlds hardest-to-find cigars, as well as color photographs of more than 20 of the most coveted handmade cigars. Beautifully designed to reflect the discriminating tastes of cigar lovers, The Handmade Cigar Collectors Guide and Journal is a keepsake that no discerning connoisseur should be without.

Handmade Cigar Collector's Guide and Journal

Todd Lawson

An empty nester's guide to remodeling features twenty-one homes and color illustrations and photographs highlighting floor plans and design ideas for a wide variety of homes that will ease the transition from busy family household to quiet homestead.

Reinventing Home Once the Kids are Grown

The House to Ourselves

An irreverent spoof of entertainment guides offers a variety of offbeat tips on how to make any occasion unforgettable, including recipes, dinner party plans, and hilarious home projects

(A Parody)

Martha Stuart's Better Than You at Entertaining

Well, now you've gone and done it America. You've elected Donald K. Trump President and the U.S. will never again be the same! The problem for all of us is that he's got plans, lots of them--the list reads like a bad acid trip: Nominating Bernie Madoff for Secretary of the Treasury; "Trumpifying" the Constitution; making personal real estate deals with Vladimir Putin; staging a hostile takeover of one of America's great news magazines - to name just a few. In this "inaugural" (and wholly fictitious) issue of Trump TIME Magazine, President-Elect Trump promises to re-make America in his own image - and it ain't pretty. Don't like it? Move to Canada, losers!

Parody

President Trump

An informative and occasionally bizarre collection of American inventions, products, and services of the past, present, and future from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, including the historically significant and commercially successful to the altogether frivolous and utterly useless! Innovation and entrepreneurism appear inextricably woven into the American DNA. Throughout American history, the great inventors and innovators gazed into the future and saw the products and services that would transform the world. While passionate about creating this new thing called a democracy, our Founding Fathers were also driven to change the way humans lived and worked -- to complete everyday tasks faster, easier, and more efficiently. As of 2018, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office had granted its ten millionth patent. But with over 500,000 applications now being filed annually, fewer than half of these applicants will be granted patents and far fewer still -- an estimated one percent -- will realize commercial success, according to the Office. Some are flawed by mistakes or missing details, others too ridiculous to take seriously, still others simply ahead of their time. From the brightest and most innovative to the wackiest, most bizarre, and downright crazy, this collection of 100 patents includes funny and informative descriptions and original illustrations, all the while letting you in on what most successful patents have in common, what inspired their creators, and how great inventors view the world.

Brainstorms & Mindfarts

An empty nester's guide to remodeling features twenty sample homes and hundreds of color illustrations and photographs highlighting floor plans and design ideas for a wide variety of homes that will ease the transition from busy family household to quiet homestead. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

Tom Connor

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