Product Description
When we think of laws in the UK we recall the Magna Carta of about 800 years ago. All over Europe laws were formed and had time to mature over the centuries. Not so in the USA which grew to be a world power in a relatively short period. As a new country, laws would spring up wherever people would settle. Any educated man could become a lawyer and any local judge could pass laws in his town that he felt appropriate.
In Waterloo, Nebraska, for example, barbers were forbidden to eat onions between the hours of 7am and 7pm. This must have been because a judge had an onion-eating, foul-breathed barber attend to him one day. What better way to avoid this in future than to pass a law? Hey presto! Problem solved.
Although most of these laws seem very silly to us now, at the time they must have been passed for a reason and because the town’s leading citizens wanted to stamp out a particular problem. This is still done today and we do not have
to look far to find an example. In the UK, the wearing of baseball caps and hoodies has been banned from various retail outlets. Too bad if you are a Trappist monk. To Americans, this law this will appear very silly but to many of us it is a simple solution to a particular problem and this is what happened all over America.
The section on funny American laws, which takes up most of the book, is divided alphabetically by State. It is an eclectic set of laws chosen by me for their weirdness and comic aspects. Each State’s motto is noted after the State heading. A random collection of funny laws from other parts of the world follow but really, as you will see, America has the crown!
In Waterloo, Nebraska, for example, barbers were forbidden to eat onions between the hours of 7am and 7pm. This must have been because a judge had an onion-eating, foul-breathed barber attend to him one day. What better way to avoid this in future than to pass a law? Hey presto! Problem solved.
Although most of these laws seem very silly to us now, at the time they must have been passed for a reason and because the town’s leading citizens wanted to stamp out a particular problem. This is still done today and we do not have
to look far to find an example. In the UK, the wearing of baseball caps and hoodies has been banned from various retail outlets. Too bad if you are a Trappist monk. To Americans, this law this will appear very silly but to many of us it is a simple solution to a particular problem and this is what happened all over America.
The section on funny American laws, which takes up most of the book, is divided alphabetically by State. It is an eclectic set of laws chosen by me for their weirdness and comic aspects. Each State’s motto is noted after the State heading. A random collection of funny laws from other parts of the world follow but really, as you will see, America has the crown!
Synopsis
Did you know that in New Hampshire it is technically illegal to tap your feet or nod your head to music in a restaurant? Or that in Baltimore you cannot take a lion to the cinema? This work is a collection of bizarre and zany laws from around the world.
