I've been lax in reporting on my visits with the Wake Up With Whoopi crew, but we are still having weekly chats about all kinds of odd and essential facts. Despite the massive deadlines looming over us, I promise to play a little catch-up this week, starting with this visit from August 23. Topics of conversation that week:

• Popular sections and common uses of The World Almanac
• A light scolding from Whoopi for not having the complete World Almanac available online
• A quick chat about the value of Wikipedia relative to other reference sources, and what happens when you look up "Paul Cubby Bryant"
• And the meaty topic of the day: a quick survey of some interesting sumptuary laws, drawing on information in this year's World Almanac for Kids. (Click here for a variation of the New Jersey law that closes the segment, plus some additional reading on sumptuary laws around the world)

More to come this week, I swear!

Listen here: Wake Up With Whoopi: Aug. 23, 2007(mp3, 8MB)

Image: Screen capture from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). The Quasimodo reference will make sense when you listen to the clip...