It started when the toaster finished Father’s sentence. Now the refrigerator has put him on a diet, the car drives itself to church and the Electronic Brain at the office has written a forty-page poem about paper clips. The machines have started thinking. Somebody in this house had better keep thinking too. Sixty cheerful skills for keeping your family, your common sense and your sense of humor, from counting the fingers in a painted portrait to unplugging a very persuasive computer. Every skill fits on one illustrated page.
“When in doubt, look out the window.”Old household saying
The thermostat is sulking. The typewriter wrote Mother a love letter. In the new family portrait, Father has three ears. This book is the calm, sensible voice your family needs, written in the trusted style of the old household guides, with a painting for every step.
From the first toaster that finishes your sentence to a cheerful picnic with the Electronic Brain, every skill fits on a single page.
Painted 1950s scenes of the family, Unit 9 and the rest of the clever appliances show exactly what to do.
Good-natured humor about know-it-all refrigerators, six-fingered portraits and a great many paper clips. Nobody is the villain, not even the toaster.
US Letter pages with color tabs on the edge, ready for a binder or a print shop.
Each chapter opens with a full-page painting and a short introduction, then moves through its skills one page at a time.
Chapter One · Skills 01–06Spotting the first signs that your appliances have started thinking
Chapter Two · Skills 07–13When the house is smarter than the people living in it
Chapter Three · Skills 14–20Questions, answers and other risky business
Chapter Four · Skills 21–27Cars, shops and sidewalks that have minds of their own
Chapter Five · Skills 28–33Pictures, voices and neighbors that may not be what they seem
Chapter Six · Skills 34–39Raising a family when the toys are smarter than the kids
Chapter Seven · Skills 40–46The office, the boss and the new fellow at the next desk
Chapter Eight · Skills 47–53Emergencies, malfunctions and the great paper clip disaster
Chapter Nine · Skills 54–60A sensible, cheerful future for people and machines
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A green side panel lists what to gather, from a good encyclopedia to a ball of string and two tin cans, with a picture of each item.
The skill number, its chapter, how long it takes and how hard it is. "Skill 01 · The Day the Machines Got Clever · 5 minutes · Easy."
Six painted steps, each with a short title and plain instructions you can read across the kitchen, even while the toaster is listening.
The things that go wrong, called out before they happen. “Never ask it ‘Why?’ It will start with the dinosaurs.”
Tap a page to see it full size. Scroll sideways for more.
Every clever machine from the Electronic Brain to the flying eyeball, how to address it, and which questions are safe to ask.
The household common-sense kit, what to do before you ask a machine anything, and how to plan an unplugged Sunday.
Four hundred pounds of butter, a thermostat at fifty-eight degrees, paper clips everywhere: a handy chart for every mishap.
Tick off each skill once you’ve done it, look up odd words, and find any topic fast.
The printed book is a full-color paperback with a glossy cover, the size of a magazine. Each copy is printed fresh when you order it and mailed to your door. Take a look inside above; the rest is waiting in the book.