What's in a Name? - And Other Pieces of My Mind

"What Do Toilet Paper and Air Travel Have in Common?"

"No, We Will Not Pardon Your French."

"Sex, American Style," or "How to Confound the Scrooges Who Cut Off Funds for Your Cherished Project and Astound the Public into Buying Your Book at the Same Time."

Are these joke setups? Punch lines? Well, yes and no: they're titles of essays from a humorous, meandering collection titled What's in a Name? And Other Pieces of My Mind.

Whose mind, you ask? Oh, what a beautiful mind it is: that of Stephen Pearl-an erudite Brit who served in the Royal Air Force, attended Oxford, worked as a UN interpreter in New York, developed an innovative method for training simultaneous interpreters, and translated several Russian classics (whew ).

Pearl puts his considerable brainpower to good use in dozens of essays touching on everything from global warming to Monday Night Football. Though Pearl clearly has addressed a wide range of topics, he manages to organize them into four categories: "What's in a Name?" "Americana," "The Sexes," and "Other Pieces."

Whether you're looking for an entertaining diversion or a paradigm shift, you'll find it within these pages.