"In these essays, many of which originally appeared in The Skeptical Inquirer, Scientific American, and the Los Angeles Times, Gardner spans the realms of science and mathematics, literature, philosophy, religion, and mysticism. He examines influential scientific concepts, such as the possibility of multiple universes and the theory that time can go backward. With a keen skepticism he skewers the practitioners of fallacious pseudoscience, from Dr. Bruno Bettelheim's erroneous theory of autism to the cruel farces of Facilitated Communication and Primal Scream Therapy and the dubious magic of Uri Geller, who claimed to bend spoons with his mind. With sympathy and a wide-ranging intelligence, Gardner analyzes the bizarre tangents produced by Freudians and deconstructionists in their critiques of the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairy tale. Offering several literary appreciations of his own, Gardner lovingly recalls the Tin Woodman from The Wizard of Oz and Chesterton's classic The Man Who Was Thursday, and he introduces readers to Ian Stewart's popular mathematical fable Flatterworld and to the neglected mysteries of British suspense writer Edgar Wallace." "Gardner's essays are a testament to his invaluable contributions to our understanding of legitimate scientific inquiry of the past century."--BOOK JACKET.