What the

A new book echoes and explores some of the the perplexities that were honored, some years ago, with an Ig Nobel Literature Prize.

The new book is called Index, A History of the. Dennis Duncan wrote it. (And here’s a review in the Globe and Mail.)

The 2007 Ig Nobel Literature Prize was awarded to Glenda Browne, for her study of the word “the” — and of the many ways it causes problems for anyone who tries to put things into alphabetical order. That study is: “The Definite Article: Acknowledging ‘The’ in Index Entries,” Glenda Browne, The Indexer, vol. 22, no. 3 April 2001, pp. 119-22.