<![CDATA[The Toothpick: Technology and Culture]]>

false <![CDATA[The Toothpick: Technology and Culture]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1185246676m/1562040.jpg 1562040 2 Like The Pencil, Henry Petroski’s The Toothpick is a celebration of a humble yet elegant device. As old as mankind and as universal as eating, this useful and ubiquitous tool finally gets its due in this wide-ranging and compulsively readable book. Here is the unexpected story of the simplest of implements—whether made of grass, gold, quill, or wood—a story of engineering and design, of culture and class, and a lesson in how to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary. Petroski takes us back to ancient Rome, where the emperor Nero makes his entrance into a banquet hall with a silver toothpick in his mouth; and to a more recent time in Spain, where a young señorita uses the delicately pointed instrument to protect her virtue from someone trying to steal a kiss. He introduces us to Charles Forster, a nineteenth-century Bostonian and father of the American toothpick industry, who hires Harvard students to demand toothpicks in area restaurants—thereby making their availability in eating establishments as expected as condiments. And Petroski takes us inside the surprisingly secretive toothpick-manufacturing industry, in which one small town’s factories can turn out 200 million wooden toothpicks a day using methods that, except for computer controls, haven’t changed much in almost 150 years. He also explores a treasure trove of the toothpick’s unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond. With an engineer’s eye for detail and a poet’s flair for language, Petroski has earned his reputation as a writer who explains our world—from the tallest buildings to the lowliest toothpick—to us. 1554588 16 10 2007 The Toothpick: Technology and Culture total:24|5:2|4:7|3:8|2:6|1:1| 24 75 74 8 1 1 false true Mon Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jan 15 07:28:52 -0800 2008 Mon Jul 28 20:19:28 -0700 2008
the best quote:
"With a toothpick, what we see is what we've got- inside a toothpick in the same wood t...more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Apr 06 08:04:34 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 08:06:39 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Sep 06 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 09 17:15:28 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 06 04:21:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Jul 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 07 12:04:25 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 20 06:09:27 -0700 2008 How It's Made bent than a full-blown history book.]]> 2 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 15 06:45:16 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 15 06:46:47 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 14 07:31:03 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 14 07:32:14 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Sat Dec 01 07:05:59 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 01 07:07:27 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Wed Nov 12 11:35:57 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 12 11:47:51 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Fri Nov 06 00:53:01 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 06 00:53:01 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 02 06:32:09 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 06:32:09 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Aug 31 15:23:15 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 15:23:15 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Aug 20 14:05:28 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 14:05:28 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Aug 14 22:25:28 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 22:25:28 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Tue Aug 04 17:21:05 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 17:21:05 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jul 03 22:10:28 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 03 22:10:28 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jun 15 09:54:45 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 09:54:45 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Apr 29 17:19:47 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 17:19:47 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Apr 17 19:16:33 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 19:20:46 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 27 08:05:41 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 08:05:55 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Feb 28 12:44:30 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 12:44:30 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1562040