Preface to the Revised Edition xi
Introduction: How Come the Nile River Flows Up? xv
Chapter 1 The World Is a Pear 1
Chapter 2 What's So Bad About the Badlands? 43
Chapter 3 If People Were Dolphins, the Planet Would Be Called Ocean 119
Chapter 4 Elephants in the Alps 155
Chapter 5 Paradise Lost? Geography, Weather, and the Environment 229
Chapter 6 Lost in Space? 271
Appendix I What the Hell Is a Hoosier? Names and Nicknames of the Fifty American States 289
Appendix II Table of Comparative Measures 301
Appendix III The Nations of the World 307
Acknowledgments 315
Bibliography 317
About the Author 327
Index 329