In these “impishly witty and ingeniously irreverent” essays (Atlantic Monthly), “the Andy Rooney of academia” (Los Angeles Times) takes on computer jargon, librarians, bureaucrats, meals on airplanes, bad coffee, taxi drivers, 33-function watches, soccer fans, and more. Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Umberto Eco (born January 5th 1932) is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher, literary critic and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa, 1980), an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. His 1988 novel Foucault's Pendulum has been described as a "thinking person's Da Vinci Code".Eco is President of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici, University of Bologna, and an Honorary Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford.He has also written academic texts, children’s books and many essays. He was also voted 2nd in Prospect Magazine's 2005 global poll of the world's top 100 intellectuals.He was voted 14th in 2008.