PAGES : And You Thought L.A. Was Strange?

Sure, the story going around the planet is that Los Angeles is the land of the odd and the home of the weird.

Well, to page through a copy of “The New Roadside America: The Modern Traveler’s Guide to the Wild and Wonderful World of America’s Tourist Attractions,” is to know that we’ve been done wrong. After all, it’s Cawker City, Kan., that has the World’s Second Largest Twine Ball; Snowball the Killer Goat is doing time in Locust Grove, Ga., and only in Ohio will bathroom lovers be able to find a bathtub from the Maine (in Findlay) and a urinal used by J.F.K. (in Salem).

Even if you have no desire to see Ralph the Diving Pig in Texas, this book is well worth the price ($13) just to laugh about the places authors Mike Wilkins, Ken Smith and Doug Kirby have dug up this time around. (They’ve been doing this since 1986.)

Dazzle friends at parties with tidbits like: “Did you know the Possum Monument is in Florida?” or “The other day, while I was reading an interesting piece about the Earmuff Capital of the World . . . .”

With just four entries from L.A. (the Tar Pits, Lawry’s Seasoned Salt Factory Tour, Tail O’ the Pup and Watts Towers), chances are when the World’s Largest Piece of Tofu makes it into the guide, it will be from anywhere but here.