Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction

By John Austin
Chicago Review Press, $16.95, 243 pages

Anyone who has ever worked at an office knows there are moments of down-time; lunch breaks and coffee breaks can be downright monotonous, laced with the ubiquitous bitter beverages and dull conversation… but no more! John Austin, author of Cubicle Warfare and Prank University, presents a handy guide to low-tech office gaming. The mini-weapons are made from things found around most offices: plastic spoons, file clips, toothpicks, paper, pencils and rubber bands.

The book’s arsenal includes shoelace darts, paperclip trebuchets, clip crossbows and catapults, all presented with all the seriousness of an Olympic Games trial. The author included paper targets in the back of the book, for those players who are, as he put it, “more MacGyver than marksman.” With a little adult supervision, these mini-WMDs of the office can double as family fun. Attractively packaged and well illustrated, Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction would make an amusing stocking-stuffer… just don’t take aim at the boss.

Reviewed by Meredith Greene