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What Were They Thinking?: Really Bad Ideas Throughout History
What could Tommy Dorsey have been thinking in 1940 when he installed his orchestra in the monkey house of the Philadelphia Zoo to perform a concert for the apes?
Could artist Rudy Giacomo have been serious when he proposed building a 39 mile manicotti around Manhattan Island?
Was the Nobel Prize Committee on drugs when they conferred the 1949 prize in Medicine to the man who perfected the lobotomy?
Bad ideas are everywhere--they're the tile grout of history, the crabgrass of civilization, poking up through every crack in our thinking. According to government statistics, they outnumber good ideas six hundred to one.
What Were They Thinking is a compendium of some 400 harebrained schemes, fool notions, and misguided obsessions both grandiose and mundane. In it readers will uncover one man's effort to market a board game based on the Lebanese civil war...an Iowa State University professor's proposal to blow up the moon...and Senator Victor Biaka-Boda's ill-considered campaign trip to the Ivory Coast hinterlands. (Not only did he lose the election, his constituents ate him.) Within these pages, the aim has not been to probe the motives behind bad ideas, but simply to recount and, above all, revel in them.
The stories in W hat Were They Thinking? range from the horrific to the hilarious; many are both. But none are fanciful. Every item has been carefully researched from published, non-fiction sources such as newspapers, trade journals, magazines, government reports, research studies, corporate literature, and reference books. Says Felton, "To have been any less exacting in my insistence on accuracy would have been a terrible idea ."
Could artist Rudy Giacomo have been serious when he proposed building a 39 mile manicotti around Manhattan Island?
Was the Nobel Prize Committee on drugs when they conferred the 1949 prize in Medicine to the man who perfected the lobotomy?
Bad ideas are everywhere--they're the tile grout of history, the crabgrass of civilization, poking up through every crack in our thinking. According to government statistics, they outnumber good ideas six hundred to one.
What Were They Thinking is a compendium of some 400 harebrained schemes, fool notions, and misguided obsessions both grandiose and mundane. In it readers will uncover one man's effort to market a board game based on the Lebanese civil war...an Iowa State University professor's proposal to blow up the moon...and Senator Victor Biaka-Boda's ill-considered campaign trip to the Ivory Coast hinterlands. (Not only did he lose the election, his constituents ate him.) Within these pages, the aim has not been to probe the motives behind bad ideas, but simply to recount and, above all, revel in them.
The stories in W hat Were They Thinking? range from the horrific to the hilarious; many are both. But none are fanciful. Every item has been carefully researched from published, non-fiction sources such as newspapers, trade journals, magazines, government reports, research studies, corporate literature, and reference books. Says Felton, "To have been any less exacting in my insistence on accuracy would have been a terrible idea ."
- GenresHistoryNonfictionHumor
274 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 18, 2019
i have not read this book and do not intend to, but i am rating it 1-star on the basis of three cited examples of "really bad ideas": Tommy Dorsey performing a concert for apes at the monkey house of the Philadelphia Zoo; artist Rudy Giacomo proposing the construction of a 39-mile manicotti around Manhattan Island; and the 87-hour experimental movie "The Cure for Insomnia".
These are clearly all very good ideas. That the author considers them "really bad" just tells me that what we're in for in this book is a rather tedious normie sneering at anyone who does anything weird, funny, inexplicable or out of the ordinary, as if that's somehow more honourable, as if bland self-policing conformity is any less of a "bad idea" than doing something wildly creative or unusual just to see what happens.
Up the monkey-house orchestras. Long live long movies. Viva enormous impractical architecture. Let's hear it for the dreamers of the world, the makers of impractical plans and those who dare to have "really bad ideas". The Bruce Feltons of this world can go back to their spreadsheets.
These are clearly all very good ideas. That the author considers them "really bad" just tells me that what we're in for in this book is a rather tedious normie sneering at anyone who does anything weird, funny, inexplicable or out of the ordinary, as if that's somehow more honourable, as if bland self-policing conformity is any less of a "bad idea" than doing something wildly creative or unusual just to see what happens.
Up the monkey-house orchestras. Long live long movies. Viva enormous impractical architecture. Let's hear it for the dreamers of the world, the makers of impractical plans and those who dare to have "really bad ideas". The Bruce Feltons of this world can go back to their spreadsheets.
August 7, 2023
We had this book in the car for several years and were amused by zillions of anecdotes while passing time in the car. Many a ridiculous idea has been included, and many are crazy enough that you have to wonder if they are fabricated. Here's where it runs aground: Sources are not referenced or even mentioned, the introduction offers no explanations or methodology, and even the author's "bio" is a very scant paragraph that offers no credentials. So, unless you want to independently search each or any of the hundreds of hair-brained ideas, it's all face value and perhaps a grain of salt.
May 17, 2017
Made me laugh a lot! Some of the stuff is really funny. Good bathroom reading.
June 9, 2019
A few interesting facts, but mostly the facts were boring. About 1/8 of the book was something I cared to hear about.
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July 25, 20112007
October 25, 2013
This is a good, general trivia book. Small snippets of information that are long enough to hold your attention but short enough not to overwhelm you.
December 26, 2016
An entertaining read, always fun to read about other people's mistakes.
February 14, 2008
Fun book of interesting stories and facts.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews