Get in the Encyclopedia

A.J. Jacobs read the 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica, A to Z. He then wrote a book, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. It's a good book: filled with facts and funny comments. It's a bit too autobiographical and smug for our tastes, but we've enjoyed it, and we'll be providing excerpts from the book during the next week.

In the meantime, we offer the book's Top Ten List of ways to get your name in the Encyclopedia Britannica. According to the author, the EB has a particular interest in certain things. If you fall within one of their interest areas, your chances of getting included go up. Here's the list:

1. Get beheaded.
2. Explore the Arctic
3. Write some poems
4. Become a botanist
5. Get yourself involved in commedia della'arte (the "Britannica's obsession with the Italian 18th-century comedies borders on the unhealthy")
6. Win the Nobel Prize
7. Get castrated (men only)
8. Design a font
9. Become a mistress to a monarch (ladies only)
10. Become a liturgical vestment

Funny stuff.