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But despite the toll Corbet’s must take on Jackson Hole’s ski patrol, the mountain itself is making a profit off of those foolish enough to attempt the run. A special Steep and Deep Ski Camp offers elite skiers a chance to spend four days on a guide-assisted program tackling some of Jackson Hole’s most challenging terrain, culminating in a chance to try Corbet’s. Proof of how reckless one must be to ski it: despite having paid nearly a thousand dollars to participate in the program, most Steep and Deep participants decide not to try.

If we expand our stupid-places-to-ski adventure outside the United States, the editors at Skiing Magazine have told me there is one clear winner: Bec des Rosses in Vernier, Switzerland. It’s home of a yearly Xtreme Verbier Freeride event that’s considered the most prestigious in the world. Imagine skiing down one of the mountains on an Evian bottle: a 1,650-foot north face, lots of exposed rock, and a slope that gets up to fifty-five degrees (that is, when you’re not in free fall). As professional skier Shroder Baker put it, “It’s a huge cheese-grating monster, with sharp jagged rocks all the way down.”

Chapter 30

The Beast

Some visitors to New York enjoy viewing the city skyline from the tranquil deck of the Circle Line Sightseeing cruise ship; others prefer to spend their time in the Big Apple puking over the edge of speedboats. Or at least that’s the only explanation I’ve come up with for the continued popularity of the Beast, a motorboat painted to resemble an open-mouthed shark that gives daily “water coaster” rides through New York Harbor. “With over 90 speakers, Captain ‘Mad Dog’ pumps up the crowd with popular music and amusing New York ‘shtick ’throughout the ride,” the Beast’s promoters boast. Translation? You will be forced to sing along to “Eye of the Tiger” and perform the YMCA dance as crewmembers pelt you with water balloons and mock you over loudspeakers—all while you’re bouncing across the water at speeds faster than forty-five miles per hour, courtesy of the boat’s two 2,600-horsepower engines. In order to limit its liability, the tour explicitly bars pregnant women from riding on the Beast. But regardless of whether or not you are carrying a child, I’d recommend skipping the speedboat and taking the Staten Island Ferry instead. It gives great views of the Statue of Liberty, has ample deck space to perform the 1970s dance sensations of your choosing, and, unlike most things in New York, it’s free.

Chapter 31

The Grover Cleveland Service Area

I’d actually recommend not seeing any of the rest stops along the New Jersey Turnpike, each of which is named for a notable person who was born or lived in the state. The Thomas Edison Starbucks, the James Fenimore Cooper Burger King—call me un-American, but I think there’s something inherently depressing about Walt Whitman being commemorated by a Cinnabon franchise.

Daniel Modell

According to Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike—which itself might qualify as a Book Not to Read Before You Die—several rest stops have reputations that go beyond just convenient places to grab a cup of coffee. The Vince Lombardi area was once known as a hot spot for cruising gay men; anecdotal reports suggest that the Joyce Kilmer service area used to be frequented by prostitutes (they’ve now been supplanted by a Sbarro).

Graced with branches of Popeye’s, Pizza Hut Express, and, in the case of Woodrow Wilson, a Blimpie, what does impress me about these rest stops is their ambition; it’s hard, after all, to build a service area that really captures the essence of Alexander Hamilton. But with a Roy Rogers and a Carvel, no one can say they didn’t try.

Chapter 32

The Room Where Spam Subject Lines Are Created

The subject lines for spam are probably the product of some electronic word scrambler, but I like to think that they are the brainchildren of a secret society of perverts. I imagine these men meeting in a subterranean room someplace in the former Soviet Union, flipping through stacks of porn as they