Fun_People Archive
12 Jan
Another one for the coffee table

Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 17:08:49 PST
To: Fun_People
Subject: Another one for the coffee table

 From: Keith Bostic <vangogh.CS.Berkeley.EDU!bostic>

The Romance of Proctology_
 
    I couldn't resist offering my favorite "weird book title" for the
    amusement of the group.  It's The Romance of Proctology: which
    is the story of the history and development of this much neglected
    branch of surgery from its earliest times to the present day,
    including brief biographic sketches of those who were its
    pioneers.  The author of this gem of medical history was Charles
    Elton Blanchard, M.D., and the book was originally published in
    1938 by Medical Success Press and reprinted by AMS Press in 1978.
 
    I'd also like to take this occasion to quote from the first
    sentence in the book's foreword:  "No one knows who was the first
    doctor to examine the rectal orifice of the human frame."

_Life stories of Dying Penitents_
    A 19th cent collection of essays from various people who, on their
    deathbeds, tell  you why you shouldn't do whatever *they* did.

_The History and Romance of Elastic Webbing_
    A moving account of the lives and exploits of the men (and they were
    manly men) who made the elastic webbing industry what it is today.
    The last sentence is "Lest we forget, lest we forget!" I kid you
    not.

© 1994 Peter Langston