Tic Tac Teddy Bears Teardrop Tattoos

by Justin Scroggie

The first - monstrously entertaining - book to collect, expose and then explain all the secrets, signs, symbols and codes at use in everyday existence.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

254 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2008

Reviews

[Angela Maher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miscellany is a good description of this. It's a real hodge podge of all sorts of information, which I found lacked coherence. There is a decent amount of interesting content, but some topics are covered far too briefly, and others with too much detail. Some little snippets don't really even seem to belong to the overall theme. It's all over the place, really. Some parts are very dry, others you can see genuine enthusiasm for from the author.
Good for anyone who likes trivia, but not if you're looking for something with depth. Some parts are also a bit dated.

[Peter Geyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books for when you just want a light read, leafing through various topics and facts, lists and references. I learned a few things and might have to reconsider the meanings of a couple of a couple of songs.

This is well-written and I enjoyed the way it was presented and laid out

[David Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little book looking into the slightly hidden things of the world, from prison tattoos and gang signs to secret codes and slang. You can quickly pick up little tidbits of information and trivia that you can later use to bore your friends and acquaintances.

My favorite stories involved TV shows. Catalina, the Latina maid/dancer in My Name is Earl, is often shown to be yelling in Spanish. The impression is she is swearing when in actuality she is sharing messages with the Spanish speaking audience. For example (and I am paraphrasing), she actually made the statement “We would like to thank our Hispanic viewers for supporting our show. And if you are not Hispanic than good for you learning a second language.”

And now that I know, I am surprised I never noticed it before. House is an homage to Sherlock Holmes. Both are cranky Englishmen who solve mysteries using strict logic. Both have a drug addiction and live in apartment 221B. And while Holmes relies on the ever supportive Dr. James Watson, House has his Dr. James Wilson. Obvious really.

He also gets into some logo’s including one I have noted before, the hidden arrow in-between the E & X in Fed-Ex.

And the subtle message in Amazon’s smiling arrow. It points from A to Z suggesting it all can be found at Amazon.

The author is English and a lot of his examples come from that culture (though not all). One he discusses is the origin of English slang words like yob. It was a slang that used reversed words, so originally yob was for boy. It was also the source for Bonk. I will let those of you familiar with both uses (bonk and its counterpart) enjoy that historical insight.

[Debs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains interesting little facts about the secret codes you probably don't know much about, like hidden messages in cartoons and stamps, clothing symbols, speech codes for certain groups and so much for.. Not one to read, just to dip in and out of but some of it is fascinating, others well known and some best not known!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first picked this up, I thought it was going to be one of those books you buy as a Christmas present for someone that you don't know what to buy for !

In fact, it turned out to have a lot more content that those, most of which I didn't already know. Very good.

[Melita · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fun to read and may actually make you feel knowledgeable.
One time I read about acronyms from this and it led to a long journey of discovering new things on the net (big surprise, i surf on the net about themes i like from a book).

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a great collection of the signs sympbols all around us.

Who knew that the Queen was passing secret messages with her handbag.

Also contains the funniest joke about country music I have ever read...worth reading just for that.

[Angela Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

very interesting