Since I posted yesterday’s shocking expose! of BackToBasicsToys.com’s clueless customer service, I’ve found out that it wasn’t so shocking after all. Several people emailed to say that this is what always happens when you order from Back To Basics Toys. One wag said he and his wife call them “Back To The Phone Toys.” Heh. Good to know that my rant wasn’t aimed at a fundamentally good site with some flaws and paranoid customers (see PayPalSucks.com), but rather at a bunch of incompetents who need to fix a broken business process or call it a day.

While I was in Mexico, the first copies of the Trivia Almanac arrived at the house. I was probably pretty high-maintenance when it came to the editorial and production people behind this book, but their hard work really paid off: this is one good-looking book. And big! $20 retail (much less on-line if you’re looking for a discount) for nine thousand questions, hardcover. It’s not even 2008 yet and that’s already the deal of the year.

I figured a fun exercise might be to read off the answers to a bunch of questions and see if you could guess the theme that unites the quiz on the question side (essentially a Jeopardian pursuit: reconstructing the question given the answers). Some of these are easy, but some might require ESP or an early review copy. You tell me.

• Diogenes, William Proxmire, the polka, .44 inches
• Richmond, The Daily Bugle, Saddam Hussein, James Dean, gun sights
• Ciudad Juarez, Quick Draw McGraw, Desperado, Orlando Hernandez, Toledo
• The San Diego Padres, Anthony Kennedy, Guitar George, “money,” Missouri
• “Primary,” “Father Figure,” “Soon as I Get Home,” “This Kiss”
• Fall Out Boy, Life Goes On, Sammy Sosa, Michael Collins, Dom Perignon
• Gregor Mendel, Once Upon a Mattress, Cocoa Puffs, Cicero, nine days
• Canadian films, a boom box, “…Baby One More Time,” Solomon, Jonathan Frakes

Update: Readers demonstrate their telepathy here and here.