Diverse and often unrelated information are bound to be a conversation piece

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
If you're rendered speechless at dinner parties and think yourself a bore in small talk in the office, a buzz is on a new book that will boost your conversation quotient.
It's "Schott's Original Miscellany" (Bloomsbury Books, $14.95), a collection of diverse, unconnected information by Ben Schott.
You can find a list of suppliers to Queen Elizabeth and husbands of Elizabeth Taylor. Read what Dorothy Parker said about Katharine Hepburn: "She ran the whole gamut of emotions from A to B."
Bone up on the winners of soccer's World Cup and the hierarchy of falconry. Learn that beef Wellington is a fillet steak in puff pastry named in honor of the Duke of Wellington, and peach Melba, a combination of ice cream, peaches and raspberry sauce, was named after soprano Dame Nelli Melba.
And so it goes. It's one of the few books with a disclaimer in the preface. Under "To Forgive, Divine," the author takes no responsibility if you play a bad hand at poker, lose a big bet or "shrink all your socks."
The book is available at major book stores.