Book Description ... Because Joel Achenbach， the intrepid syndicated columnist for The Washington Post， did not rest after answering the great questions of the day in Why Things Are. Here comes Volume II -- a book that provides not only astonishing facts about the worlds of science， politics， history， art， love and sex， but also the Big Picture as well. You'll be stunned， amazed， and hey， even smarter when you read the answers to these timeless questions:-- Why does time speed up as we get older?-- Why is Citizen Kane considered the best film of all time?-- Why do horrible songs like "The Candy Man" and "Kung Fu Fighting" get stuck in your head， until finally you want to throw yourself off a bridge (over troubled water)?-- Why is it better to slice a sandwich diagonally， rather than straight across?-- Why is love so difficult?-- Why are politicians always getting into sex scandals?-- Why doesn't a black hole somewhere get so big and powerful that it eventually goes sklurrp! and sucks the entire galaxy， including planet earth， into its dreadful maw? From the Publisher You don't need to have the other books in this series to own this one (although after you read Joel Achenbach's work， you'll want to read them as well!). Joel Achenbach (that's Joel on the cover， by the way) wrote a newspaper column called "Why Things Are." It appeared in newspapers all over the U.S. and people loved it. Unfortunately for us， Joel's moved on to other kinds of writing， but we have been lucky enough to preserve the wisest and smartest of Joel's answers to such things as: Why Citizen Kane is considered the best film of all time; and Why horrible songs like "The Candy Man" and "Kung Fu Fighting" get stuck in your head until finally you want to throw yourself off a bridge (over troubled water)? (the last being my personal favorite question in the book!)Joel has fans all over the U.S.， one of the most famous being humorist Dave Barry， who said about this title: "This book clearly explains the entire universe and the meaning of life. It makes GREAT bathroom reading." Well， I guess that quote says it all--enjoy!--E. Zack， Senior Editor See all Editorial Reviews