The greatest book of all time?

As far as fabulous books go, this one is high on the list. It's title summons visions of Bette Midler as a wicked witch. It draws you in with promises of how to get rich quick, how to play with the animals (including cats). For the adventurous types, it dazzles with promises of balancing two knives on the brim of a glass (useful as a new parlour trick). Even parents get a look in as they can teach their children to read by using dice. You can become immune to the rascalous pick pockets, make fireworks and booze, and fix up the house with some plastering.

How is this not the greatest selling book of all time? Well, it's free. Download it now!

Why coffee is better than wine or ale

Stumbled across a great poem from the late 17th century, all about the virtues of coffee over the detrimental effects of boozing:

Coffee

When the sweet Poison of the Treacherous Grape

Had acted on the world a general rape; 

Drowning our Reason and our souls 

In such deep seas of large o'erflowing bowls, 

When foggy Ale, leavying up mighty trains

Of muddy vapours, had besieg'd our Brains,

Then Heaven in Pity

First sent amongst us this All-Healing Berry,

Coffee arrives, that grave and wholesome Liquor,

That heals the stomach, makes the genius quicker,

Relieves the memory, revives the sad, 

And cheers the Spirits, without making mad. 

-- Anon. (1674)