Unusually Stupid Americans: A Compendium of All-American Stupidity

Format: Trade paperback

Condition: vg-/good+ condition, minor shelf wear

Size: 4.75"x5.75"

Pages: 288pp, 2003 edition

Everyone knows that America is "the land of the free and the home of the brave," but sometimes that means we're free to be as bravely stupid as we want! In Unusually Stupid Americans, Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras assemble choice bits of stupidity, U.S.A.- style, including:

- the top seriously flawed American advertising moments, including Pacific Airlines' brilliant "You're scared of flying? So's our pilot!" ad campaign, which led the airline to bankruptcy within two months of the campaign's inception

- the Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration in Florida, where a plaque was unveiled that was intended to honor the actor James Earl Jones but instead read, "Thank you Jeams Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive" (an unfortunate slip-up, as James Earl Ray was King's assassin)

- From the Thirty Stupidest Warning Labels (Item: Collapsible baby stroller; Warning: Remove child before folding. Item: Chainsaw; Warning: Do not attempt to stop chain with hands). Class-Action Suits (Who Was Sued: Southwestern Bell; What the Lawyre Received: $4 million; What Each Class Member Received: $15 credit on phone bill). From Stupid Business in the USA (In the early 1990s, after Apple's Lisa computer proved to be a flop, the company buried 2,700 unsold ones in a Utah landfill. Why didn't they donate them to one of the many schools clamoring for new computers? By dumping them, they got a better tax write-off)

- and much more!

"Exceedingly amusing."- The Washington Post. "Cruel but funny." - Playboy