Biggest Secrets: More Uncensored Truth about All Sorts of Stuff You Are Never Supposed to Know

Insatiable curiosity--his own and his readers'--powers Poundstone's ( Big Secrets ) pursuit of such carefully concealed data as the ages of celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Estee Lauder, queen of the youth preservation business. Equally intriguing are revelations about why magicians use rabbits for hat tricks, and about the contrasts between the classic ``cheap gimmicks'' employed by Houdini and the $25 million spent in 1990 in Las Vegas by the magician team of Siegfried and Roy to make an elephant disappear by means of special effects. Poundstone further unveils secret signs and numbers used to defeat counterfeiters of Treasury bills and lottery tickets, and codes aired by hospitals and airlines to signal doctors, emergencies and flight delays. Illustrations not seen by PW. (May)