Reviews

Big Secrets by William Poundstone

adnielsen's review

3.0

This is a fun read but very dated. Now I know the secret recipe for KFC’s seasoning is salt, pepper, flour, and MSG and Walt Disney is not cryogenically stored. I need to follow up on the unusual Morse code messages heard on random frequencies. Poundstone argues some of these weird messages were Cuban intelligence. Kind of fun to read.

wishanem's review

3.0

In these days of the internet, few secrets are still very secret, but this collection of obscure knowledge was still pretty interesting. My favorite parts were the detailed investigations into questions without clear answers, specifically the historical recipes for things like Coca-Cola and perfumes. The funniest bit was the revelation that chemical analysis revealed that rather than 11 secret herbs and spices KFC fried chicken was spiced with salt, pepper, and no measurable quantities of any other spices.