Alex Palmer is a freelance journalist and author living in New York City. He covers business, travel, culture and pop culture for publications like The New York Post, Time Out New York, Publishers Weekly, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times' The Local, Huffington Post, and Editor & Publisher. The son of two teachers, he loves learning and writing about odd, funny, or surprising stories behind familiar subjects. His second book, Weird-o-pedia: The Ultimate Collection of Surprising, Strange, and Incredibly Bizarre Facts About (Supposedly) Ordinary Things, was published in July 2012. His first book, Literary Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Literature, takes a look at some of the more colorful aspects of great writers and their works, and was published in October 2010 by Skyhorse Publishing.