(NAPSA)—It all had to start somewhere—the clothes people wear, the food they eat, the languages they speak and the things they use—but someof theseorigins maysurprise you. “The Book of Origins,” a new book by Trevor Homer, contains a treasure trove of trivia about the origins of just about everything— from pencils to fortune cookies to the electric chair. For example, did you know _ the fortune / cookie was not lee eaten in China until 1990 when > it was advertised as “Genuine American Fortune Cook@ ies”? Or that the earliest fad diet wasfollowed by William the Conqueror, who became so fat he decided to skip food and consume only alcoholic drinks? Or that glass was first manufactured in 5000 B.C. andis actually not a solid but a supercooled liquid? Or that an actress from New York becamethefirst female spy during the Civil War? The book celebrates the work of explorers, scientists and inventors—pioneers who wanted to go further than anyone had gone before them, people who wanted to know what was over the next hill or beyond the ocean, people who wanted to know how the world works and ended up discovering or inventing something no one hadseenbefore. The book, published by Plume, is available where books are sold and at www.penguin.com.
