125 Years of Nitty and Gritty : THE WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS 1993 EDITION <i> (A Pharos/World Almanac Book: $16.95, cloth; $7.95, paper; 960 pp.) </i> : THE WORLD ALMANAC COMMEMORATIVE EDITION <i> A Pharos/World Almanac Book: $25, cloth; $12.95, paper; 552 pp.) </i>

All right, Smarty, how old are Siskel and Ebert? What’s the monetary unit of Australia? How many people live in Cleveland?

If these are the kinds of bar-bet questions that drive you crazy, you probably already own a hot-off-the-presses copy of “The World Almanac and Book of Facts” for 1993.

I’m not going to tell the rest of you that the World Almanac is the most useful reference book known to modern man. It’s a little secret that’s going to remain with me. That way, my friends will continue to think I’m brilliant when they call to ask if Sabu is still alive, or what the main doctrinal difference is between Lutherans and Methodists, or where exactly they can find the Jane Austen Society of North America.

This year is the book’s 125th anniversary. In celebration, the know-it-alls over at the World Almanac publishing house have issued a special commemorative edition that features “The Complete 1868 Original and Selections from 25, 50, and 100 Years Ago, with an Overview by Today’s Editors.”

Fans may get pretty excited at the prospect of thumbing through this curiosity. The editors, on the other hand--aside from their illicit love affair with initial capital letters--show absolutely no passion. In a needlessly dull four-page essay, they trot out a bunch of facts about the history of their wonderful manual.

Here are three things I learned:

--The name has nothing to do with the universality of the volume; it’s simply a trademark of its parent publication. “The World Almanac” originally was created as a handbook for journalists at the New York World. Apparently, even back in those days, newspaper libraries were inadequate. It’s difficult, though, to imagine the kinds of reporters who would have needed to read advertisements for “The Universal Clothes Wringer. Improved! With Rowell’s Patent Double Gear.”

--The annual appeared only eight times before its publication was suspended. The current editions don’t tell us why the powers-that-were suddenly decided to stop informing their employees. Nor do they tell us where the staff of the newspaper went to find out about the price of cotton at each of the principal Southern ports or the names of the year’s “Distinguished Dead.”

--After Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World, he thought it might be nice to put out a book that he modestly proposed as a “compendium of universal knowledge.” So in 1886, “The World Almanac” was resurrected. By 1894, the book claimed 500,000 “habitual users”--people who, in the days before “Jeopardy,” needed their daily fix of facts. “Hey, man, want another hit of railroad statistics?”

Despite the bland intro, the reprints themselves are loads of fun, if only just to see what our great-great-grandparents were looking up. The curious in 1893, for instance, could find out the number of gallons of malt liquor sold in principal U.S. cities, which European countries claimed which parts of Africa (all areas ruled by natives were referred to as “unappropriated”), and the names of the officers of the American Statistical Assn.

In 1943, there was a section devoted to “Illustrious Men and Women of Russia,” but another one listed only “Illustrious Men of Italy.” A different adjective/noun combination was used to describe our foes: “Noted Germanic Personages.” A hysterical blurb for the two-volume “Home Medical Adviser” advises readers that the books “MAY HELP SAVE A LIFE!” on those occasions “WHEN A SCREAM OF PAIN TERRIFIES YOUR HOME.”

Isaac Asimov wrote a prognosticative essay called “The Next 100 Years: Science-Based Estimates of What the Century Ahead May Bring” for the centenary edition of 1968; one of his predictions was that “large sections of the population may choose to withdraw into themselves.” (He was talking about chemicals and not the Sony Walkman.) There’s a description of citizenship (“Status of American Woman Who Marries a Foreigner”). And there’s a chart listing the “Occupational Earnings in Selected Cities” of, among others, “Office boys” and “office girls.” Please note the sexist use of--what is it with these folks?--the initial capital.

This year, regular “readers” will find a new feature called “Miscellaneous Facts.” Here’s one: “Sexual intercourse occurs more than 100 million times daily, resulting in 910,000 conceptions and about 350,000 cases of sexually transmitted disease, according to a report by the World Health Organization.” My question went unanswered: How do they know?

Still, if you’re into informational one-upmanship, you’d better get both of these tomes for your bookshelf. If you do, you’ll discover that Roger Ebert is 50 and Gene Siskel will be 47 in January.

But Sabu, rest his soul, has been dead since 1963.

10 Weird Facts

1. A survey reported in TV Guide said that one out of four Americans would not stop watching TV if they were paid $1 million. 46% would not give up watching it for anything less than $1 million (under Miscellaneous Facts).

2. An emperor is to be addressed in a letter as either “Sir” or “Your Imperial Majesty” (under Forms of Address for Persons of Rank and Public Office) .

3. A device is registered for patent that helps people read faster by imitating the sound of the ocean; a tape player and headphones play the sound of waves washing up on the beach in a rhythm intended to help people keep their eyes moving systematically across the page (under Patents) .

4. August 19, 1993 in Sweden is Sour Herring Premiere. November 20, 1993 in Thailand is Elephant Round-up (under Selected Foreign Holidays).

5. The U.S. Attorney General from 1901-1904 was Philander C. Knox. The Attorney General from 1869-1870 was Ebenezer R. Hoar (under Cabinet Positions) .

6. The winning word in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee was: in 1992, lyceum ; in 1982, psoriasis ; in 1983, purim .

7. Consumers spent $3.4 billion on taxicabs in 1991 (under Personal Consumption Expenditures). 8. As of mid-1992, the position of Research and Special Programs Administrator in the Dept. of Transportation was vacant (under U.S. Government: The Bush Administration). 9. The French equivalent of “don’t waste your breath” is “espargne ta salive”--literally, “save your saliva!” (under Foreign Idioms) .

10. As of mid-1992, the U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia was Shirley Temple Black and the U.S. ambassador to Uganda was named Johnnie Carson (under Ambassadors and Envoys) .