Books about Blunders from Amazon.com

"If you are one of that benighted handful of people who isn't wise to Charles Osgood's incisive and humorous look at the foibles of your fellow men, here is your chance to catch up. Try not to foul up again!"
--Walter Cronkite

Charles Osgood, one of America's favorite news personalities, offers a hilarious compendium of anecdotes from the last seventy years of presidential campaigns.

With anecdotes from Harry Truman to JFK to George W. Bush, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House captures the wit and humor of the campaign trail. Culled from speeches, interviews, press conferences, as well as articles written by and about the candidates--no source is left untapped.

From Bob Dole telling reporters after a loss in the primary that "I slept like a baby--every two hours I woke up and cried," and Barry Goldwater's comment that his talkative opponent Hubert Humphreys "has been clocked at 275 words a minute with gusts up to 340," to Adlai Stevenson declaring that "If I talk over the people's head, Ike must be talking under their feet," this is the go-to source for campaign humor.

Just when America most needs a good laugh, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House makes the seemingly endless race to the presidency a lot more fun..
Price: $11.96 [Notify me when price goes down.]

BLOOPER: BALL SQUIRTS THROUGH BILLY BUCKNER'S LEGS.

BLUNDER: BILLY BUCKNER'S MANAGER LEFT HIM IN THE GAME.

Baseball bloopers are fun; they're funny, even. A pitcher slips on the mound and his pitch sails over the backstop An infielder camps under a pop-up...and the ball lands ten feet away. An outfielder tosses a souvenir to a fan...but that was just the second out, and runners are circling the bases (and laughing). Without these moments, the highlight reels wouldn't be nearly as entertaining. Baseball blunders, however, can be tragic, and they will leave diehard fans asking why...why...why?

Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders does its best to answer all those whys, exploring the worst decisions and stupidest moments of managers, general managers, owners, and even commissioners. As he did in his Big Book of Baseball Lineups, Rob Neyer provides readers with a fascinating examination of baseball's rich history, this time through the lens of the game's sometimes hilarious, often depressing, and always perplexing blunders.

· Which ill-fated move cost the Chicago White Sox a great hitter and the 1919 World Series?

· What was Babe Ruth thinking when he became the first (and still the only) player to end a World Series by getting caught trying to steal?

· Did playing one-armed Pete Gray in 1945 cost the Browns a pennant?

· How did winning a coin toss lead to the Dodgers losing the National League pennant on Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'round the World"?

· How damaging was the Frank Robinson-for-Milt Pappas deal, really?

· Which of Red Sox manager Don Zimmer's mistakes in 1978 was the worst?

· Which Yankees trade was even worse than swapping Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps?

· What non-move cost Buck Showalter a job and gave Joe Torre the opportunity of a lifetime?

· Game 7, 2003 ALCS: Pedro winds up to throw his 123rd pitch...what were you thinking?

These are just a few of the legendary (and not-so-legendary) blunders that Neyer analyzes, always with an eye on what happened, why it happened, and how it changed the fickle course of history. And in separate chapters, Neyer also reviews some of the game's worst trades and draft picks and closely examines all the teams that fell just short of first place. Another in the series of Neyer's Big Books of baseball history, Baseball Blunders should win a place in every devoted fan's library..
Price: $4.80 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A witty, fast-paced guide to eliminating Spanish bloopers for beginners

Mixing genders, inverting subjects and objects, and trusting falsos amigos (a.k.a., false cognates) are just a few of the blunders English-speaking Spanish-language learners commonly make. In Correct Your Spanish Blunders, veteran Spanish teacher Jean Yates identifies these and other common trouble spots and clearly explains the reasons behind them. Learners discover how grammar patterns of Spanish differ from those of English and why trying to translate word for word, structure for structure, from English, can lead to big trouble.

Beginning Spanish students learn to break bad habits and correct their mistakes, while developing a much more natural feel for Spanish language patterns­­and have fun doing it!­­with the help of:

• More than 1,000 highlighted examples of common blunders to avoid
• Numerous examples and practical exercises
• Quick-reference panels for checking correct tense forms
• A "Hall of Shame" compendium of bad errors to recognize and correct

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Price: $5.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Um… is about how you really speak, and why it’s normal for your casual, everyday speech to be filled with verbal blunders — about one in every ten words. Why do they happen? Why can’t we control them? What can you tell about the people who make them?

In this charming, engaging account of language in the wild, linguist and writer Michael Erard also explains why our attention to some verbal blunders rises and falls. Why was the spoonerism named after Reverend Spooner, not some other absent-minded person? Where did the Freudian slip come from? Why do we prize "umlessness" in speaking? And how do we explain the American presidents who are famous for their verbal blundering?

You’ll have new ways to listen to yourself and others once you’ve met the people who work with verbal blunders every day — journalists, transcribers, interpreters, police officers, linguists, psychologists, among others — and when you’ve learned what verbal blunders tell about who we are and what we want.

A rich investigation of a fascinating subject, full of entertaining examples, Um. . . is essential reading for talkers and listeners of all stripes..
Price: $10.79 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When you walk into a place, you have to be able to instantly identify the fighters, hustlers, workers, spectators and troublemakers Find out how Animal and other professionals do this, based on their experiences as bouncers, drug dealers, bikers, prison officials and street people..
Price: $17.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Speak and write French as if it were your native tongue!

Tired of making the same old mistakes of switching your genders, confusing your tenses, and mixing up your idioms? Break the bad habits that leave everybody you talk to scratching their head. Correct Your French Blunders warns you of hundreds of typical errors learners make and explains the reasons behind the mistakes, so you can correct yourself in the future.

Improve your French skills with this fun and comprehensive guide and avoid all the common pitfalls, such as:

• Mispronunciation and misspelling
• Applying English grammar patterns to French
• Putting verbs in the wrong tense
• Using incorrect prepositions in expressions
• Forgetting agreements in gender and number
• Hanging out with faux amis (false cognates)

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Price: $5.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Pun lovers and grammarians rarely tire of the humor found in everyday use and misuse of the English language, and Richard Lederer is happy to provide us with a regular supply of such witticisms. An addition to his "Anguished English" series, The Bride of Anguished English is filled with hilarious language-related goofs. Each chapter focuses on a particular group of mishaps, including classic malapropisms, headlines, menus, kids' homework, poor interpretations of lyrics, and politicians' doublespeak.

This is not a good book to read in one sitting; each page is funny enough that you'll wind up with tears and a stomachache if you try to plow through it all at once. From "he's got one of those sight-seeing dogs" to "I don't want to cast asparagus at my opponents," the malapropisms are delightful, and the chapter even includes a short history of Mrs. Malaprop's character, and why she was found to be so entertaining by 18th-century theatergoers. The chapter on song lyrics introduces the word "modegreen," and provides some hilarious examples; would Bowie recognize his classic "Major Tom" by the singing of "clown control to Mao Zedong"? Christmas songs may never be the same, if we start singing them the way kids hear them--although "we three kings of porridge and tar" may well be the hit of the holidays. Headlines like "New Vaccine May Contain Rabbis" and "Uneasy Clam Settles Over Michigan" are not only funny, but reading them will help train your eye to seek out such boo-boos in your own local paper. Perfect for teachers, editors, nitpickers, and the annoying punster who shares your office, this absurd and entertaining book is sure to delight. --Jill Lightner.
Price: $3.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]