The Official Rules at Home: The Laws That Determine What Can, and Probably Will, Go Awry in Your Daily Life

Ever since 1976, when he founded the Murphy Center for the Codification of Human and Organizational Law, headquartered in Maryland, Paul Dickson has been gathering uncommon aphorisms and snippets of unconventional wisdom conceived by curmudgeons such as himself: everyday folk as well as such notables, dead and alive, as Andy Rooney, George Burns and Roger Rosenblatt. The results of so many years' intense labor launch a series of collections, published by Walker, the first two of which are ($12.95 each): The Official Rules at Home (ISBN 0-8027-1316-5) and The Official Rules at Work (ISBN -1317-3). A few examples: ""You don't know someone until you live with him, but you don't know him well until you divorce him""; ""Read too much self-help literature and you'll need help""; ""You can't climb a mountain from inside your tent."" Diaghilev used a bicycle as a prominent prop in a 1920s production by his Ballet Russe; Robert Rauschenberg's 1993 sculpture BicycloidIII (in a series of 12) is fitted with colored neon lights tracing the bike's contours: such is the artistry found in the 280 color illustrations in Pryor Dodge's The Bicycle, which serves as the catalogue for an exhibit of his antique bicycles, posters, prints and memorabilia at the Paine Webber Art Gallery in Manhattan, May 2-October 4. The author/collector is a classical musician, an aspiring Argentine tango dancer and the editor of writings by his father, music critic Roger Pryor Dodge. (Flammarion, $50 224p ISBN 2-08013-551-1)