LAWS OF ORDER: A Book of Hierarchies,...

LAWS OF ORDER: A Book of Hierarchies, Rankings, Infrastructures, Measurements, and Sizes by Jeff Rovin (Ballantine: $9) . Rovin’s rather silly volume offers readers such amusing trivia as the number of jiggers in a jack (two), how many jills make a cup (also two) and the number of tots in a noggin (four). Included are tables of such recondite hierarchies as boxing weights (a junior featherweight tips the scales at up to 122 pounds, while a junior lightweight comes in at up to 130 pounds); Nintendo rankings (Aspirant, Chevalier, Myrmidon, Paladin, et al) and Champagne bottles (one Nebuchadnezzar equals 10 magnums, or 20 bottles). If man is truly the measure of all things, he’s devised some singularly arbitrary systems to demonstrate the fact.