Mitchell Symons - Why Does Ear Wax Taste So Gross?

DOUBLEDAY

Contents

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Epub ISBN 9781407050669

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WHY DOES EAR WAX TASTE SO GROSS?
A DOUBLEDAY BOOK 978 0 385 61570 9

Published in Great Britain by Doubleday,
an imprint of Random House Childrens Books
A Random House Group Company

This edition published 2009

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Copyright Mitchell Symons, 2009
Illustrations copyright Artful Doodlers, 2009

The right of Mitchell Symons to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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To Penny, Jack and Charlie,
with love and thanks.

Mitchell Symons was born in 1957 in London and educated at Mill House School and the LSE, where he studied law. Since leaving BBC TV, where he was a researcher and then a director, he has worked as a writer, broadcaster and journalist. He was a principal writer of early editions of the board game Trivial Pursuit and has devised many television formats. He is also the author of more than thirty books, and currently writes a weekly column for the Sunday Express .

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Also by Mitchell Symons:

Welcome to the fifth in a series of books that started with How to Avoid a Wombats Bum and then continued through Why Eating Bogeys Is Good for You , How Much Poo Does an Elephant Do? and Why Do Farts Smell Like Rotten Eggs? to this one, Why Does Ear Wax Taste So Gross?

The more perceptive reader will have noticed a trend developing. Thats right: every title relates to bodily parts/functions. But not the clean ones like arms or breathing no, its naughty things like bums and poo and farting and all that sort of thing. The trouble is and Im letting you into a trade secret here were running out of (ahem) acceptable naughty things to put in the titles of the books. Hence the title of this book.

Personally, I dont think ear wax tastes so gross well, mine doesnt anyway. But my wonderful editor (who came up with the title) thinks ear wax definitely has the yuck factor, especially when left for as long as a month before being picked! Besides, my editor did give me the opportunity to come up with a better title. Here are some of the ones I suggested:

WHY OCTOPUSES EAT THEMSELVES THE BOY WHO PEED BEETLES WHAT YOU WOULD WEIGH ON OTHER PLANETS THE KING WHO HAD A SWEAR BOX WHY YOU CANT SNEEZE IN YOUR SLEEP THE MAN WHO ATE 128 BICYCLES HOW TO ESCAPE A CROCODILE

As youll discover, all these titles none of them as snappy as the one we went with refer to facts in the book, which itself is a feast of trivia along the lines of How to Avoid a Wombats Bum and How Much Poo Does an Elephant Do? I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed compiling it.

Now for some big thank yous because without these people, this book couldnt have been written at all: (in alphabetical order) Luigi Bonomi, Lauren Buckland, Penny Chorlton, Annie Eaton, Mari Roberts and Nikalas Catlow.

In addition, Id also like to thank the following people for their help, contributions and/or support: Gilly Adams, Paul Donnelley, Jonathan Fingerhut, Jenny Garrison, Bryn Musson, Nicholas Ridge, Charlie Symons, Jack Symons, Louise Symons, David Thomas, Martin Townsend and Rob Woolley.

If Ive missed anyone out, then please know that as with any mistakes in the book it is, as ever, entirely down to my own stupidity.

Mitchell Symons

First things first

The first mobile phone text message was sent in December 1992.

Ferenc Szisz from Romania, driving a Renault, won the very first Formula One Grand Prix, held at Le Mans, France, in 1906.

Gold was the first metal to be discovered.

The first Burger King restaurant called Insta Burger King opened in Miami in 1954.

Lip gloss was first invented (by Max Factor in 1928) to make film actors lips shiny.

In 1911, Bobby Leach, a British-born circus star, became the first man to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive although he ended up in hospital for 23 weeks. Fifteen years later, he died... after slipping on a piece of orange peel in New Zealand.

Britains first Tube escalator was introduced at Earls Court in 1911. Wooden-legged Bumper Harris was employed to travel up and down it to prove that it was safe.

King Louis XV was the first person to use a lift when in 1743, his flying chair carried him between the floors of his Versailles palace.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, is credited with being the first person to introduce skiing to Switzerland.

The first elephant in England was a gift to King Henry III from the King of France in the 13th century.

The first diet soft drink, called The No-Cal Beverage, was launched in 1952.

Nottingham was the first city in the world to have Braille signs (for the blind) in its shopping malls.

Britains first Indian restaurant opened more than 50 years before the first fish-and-chip restaurant.

Julian Lloyd Webber was London Undergrounds first official busker.