Offbeat, bizarrely imaginative authors are a world of fascination unto themselves. This one is classicly so. Because his writing is the product of a fertile imagination, it conveys--beyond the immediate read--a sense of liberation from reality, i.e. that all things are not only possible in Lauria's particular world, but can be made to seem plausible! Something comes across in the style of expression that pretends seriousness but doesn't descend to slapstick. He has written several books of poetry which are laced with similar leaps into fantasy, and most recently, "How! The States Really Got Their Names --or-- Lauria's Legendary Lowdown", another "History humor" work.