Dangerous Toys & Naughty Boys: Observations on Uranus and Other Crap

This non-fiction humor novel is 65% observational humor, 35% stories from the author's past (typically childhood). This is not a memoir; the stories help illustrate a theme running throughout the book and that is the author's generation was the last to be able to play anywhere and do anything—as long as you were back by dinner-time (or dark). Along with this freedom came the scores of dangerous toys available to accommodate visits to the E.R. This, since it was boy-kid law that any toy be weaponized to the furthest extent possible. None of these toys—all now highly illegal—represents this better than the 1970's era Javelin Lawn Dart. Since then, the world has become “pussified and dumbified” with countless examples examined, such as School Boards…and School Boards.

Many chapters in this book can be read independently and in any order (e.g. “An Open Letter to the Guy Who Stole My Friend's Lunch”). Other notable sections include “The Craigslist Trilogy” which exposes the seamy world of Craigslist Personals and Selling Crap. Every institution gets skewered in this book and in that sense it could offend the easily offended. While the humor is best appreciated by adults, what is absent in this book is a lot of foul language or sexuality, etc. The book does contain very mild drug (pot) related humor and very mild and isolated sexual references (e.g. the word “breasts”). If this book were a movie it would be rated PG-13.

About the Author

Randall S. Chadwick on Points in Case – Randall S Chadwick (or “Randall S” to friends, frenemies, well-wishers, acquaintances and arresting officers) survived the 1970's and 1980's in Grand Rapids, MI. Randall was, and remains, the oldest of four boys, all of whom became his test subjects in a variety of daring and dangerous stunts or as he calls them, “scientific experiments.” Randall begin a career in humor and stand-up comedy after being diagnosed by his physician with “Peter Pan Syndrome” (PPS) and learning he had no more than 30-40 years left to live.

Reader Reviews

“With an excellent bevy of wit and vocabulary, Randall weaves stories we're all familiar with from our childhood and onward into a cohesive whole that will make you laugh and kill a few hours easily. Sometimes those hours just don't want to die, but Dangerous Toys‘ll keep 'em from crawling out of the wreckage like that long-haired German dude in the first Die Hard.”
-GoodReads Reviewer

More Book Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 12, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1514893851
• ISBN-13: 978-1514893852
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches