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Greg Ross

Goodreads Author

Born

in Pittsburgh, PA, The United States

Website

http://www.futilitycloset.com/

Genre

Science, History, Nonfiction

Member Since

October 2010

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Greg Ross edits the popular website Futility Closet, a collection of entertaining curiosities in history, literature, language, art, philosophy, and mathematics. Previously he spent 20 years editing science, engineering, and education publications for publishers such as IEEE, UNext.com, and American Scientist magazine. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

6767 posts
Greg Ross's Blog

Summary Advice

Full text of a memo from Winston Churchill to his War Cabinet, Aug. 9, 1940:

To do our work, we all have to read a mass of papers. Nearly all of them are far too long. This wastes time, while energy has to be spent in looking for the essential points.

I ask my colleagues and their staffs to see to it that their Reports are shorter.

(i) The aim should be Reports which set out the mai

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Greg Ross’s books

Average rating: 4.28 · 187 ratings · 22 reviews · 20 distinct works • Similar authors

	Futility Closet: An Idler's Miscellany of Compendious Amusements 4.24 avg rating — 141 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Futility Closet 2: A Second Trove of Intriguing Tidbits 4.45 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hut Food: A New Zealand Alpine Hiking Adventure liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	THE TENTH ALPINE DREAM AND ITS RESCUE: A TRUE TRAVEL AND OUTDOOR SURVIVAL STORY by Greg Ross (Goodreads Author), GREGORY ROSS BA (Editor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2015	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Face of the Mountain ~ True New Zealand Alpine Hiking Adventures: True New Zealand Alkpine Hiking Adventures 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ghost Hunting in Central Pennsylvania: True case studies from the founder of the Central Pennsylvania Paranormal Society 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Rat-Trapper's Handbook ~ 2022 Edition: The Complete Guide to Trapping Rats, with sections on mouse-trapping and rodent poisoning 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	THE RAT TRAPPER'S BIBLE: the professional complete guide to trapping rats and mice 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	QUE COCINEN ELLOS 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Friends We Spend (Amaroo Series) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Greg Ross is currently reading

There Are Two Errors in the the Title of This Book

by Robert M. Martin

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Aug 06, 2026 03:16PM

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Greg Ross wrote a new blog post Turnabout A puzzle by A. Khalamaizer: Move three of these circles to make the triangle point downward. From the July-August 1996 issue of Quantum. Similar: Wil Read more of this blog post »
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Greg Ross is currently reading There Are Two Errors in the the Title of This Book by Robert M. Martin	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Quotes by Greg Ross (?)

“Two atoms are walking down the street. One says, “Wait, I think I lost an electron.” The other says, “Are you sure?” The first one says, “Yes, I’m positive.”
― Greg Ross, Futility Closet: An Idler's Miscellany of Compendious Amusements

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“Charlie Chaplin once lost a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest. He didn’t even make the finals. Afterward he told a reporter that he was “tempted to give lessons in the Chaplin walk, out of pity as well as in the desire to see the thing done correctly.”
― Greg Ross, Futility Closet: An Idler's Miscellany of Compendious Amusements

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“After I’m dead I’d rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.” —Cato the Elder”
― Greg Ross, Futility Closet: An Idler's Miscellany of Compendious Amusements

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Crazy Challenge C...: Perpetual Music Relay (PMR), take two	1064	272	Dec 27, 2016 12:29PM

Greg’s Quotes

“How these curiosities would be quite forgott, did not such idle fellowes as I am putt them downe!”
― John Aubrey, Brief Lives

tags: antiquities, writing

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“I find that a great part of the information I have acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way”
― Franklin P. Adams

14 likes

“The man who publishes a book without an index ought to be damned 10 miles beyond hell, where the Devil himself cannot get for stinging nettles.”
― John Baynes

tags: indexes

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Greg Ross’s Followers (107)

Greg Ross

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