Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

With respect to reviewers who found this book 'interesting' and 'informative', this book is not to be trusted as an authoritative source for any given information. I have a collection of several other books whose purpose is to explain word and phrase origins and all of the respectable ones warrant, with admirable frequency, that the origin of such-and-such phrase is unknown or in dispute. Often multiple possible etymologies are given as possibilities. This book, by contrast, never questions its own authority. It just hands down decrees on phrase origins--some of which I cross-checked against other sources in my collection and found contradictory evidence or reports that the explanation given here had been discredited long ago! Even more alarmingly, this source lists no sources. There is no author or editor listed. No prefatory or post-script explanation of how this collection came to be. No credits, acknowledgments, or history of printing. Nothing. From the sheer number of entries that had, by the time of this printing (1985) completely disappeared from common speech, one must assume that the text was originally published decades previous, had fallen into public domain, and was reprinted for no other reason than to make a quick buck. In short, like horoscopes and the National Enquirer, this book is recommended FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY.