One of Canada's greatest inventors takes on his peers, with mixed results.The author of How to Do Everything and Red Green's Beginner's Guide to Women has never been reluctant to take on enormously difficult jobs that are doomed to failure. This latest project has turned out to be perhaps his nearest thing to a triumph yet. In Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda, Red surveys, analyzes, critiques and in some cases tells you how to replicate at home the best Canadian inventions, from the Wonderbra to the hard-cup jockstrap, by way of insulin, the walkie-talkie, synchronised swimming and more world-changing innovations than you can wave a Canadarm at. And speaking of the Canadarm, Red shows how by simply combining common household items such as a cordless drill, metal tape measure, broomstick, ice tongs, bungee cord, fishing reel and, of course, the handiman's secret weapon—duct tape—you will in no time at all be lifting oranges out of the fruit...

Red Green is celebrated as one of the handiest men in North America. But as well as being a purveyor of inventive practical advice on, for example, making a jetpack from two propane tanks, a hybrid car from recycled golf carts and satellite dishes, and a kiddie ride from a bar stool attached to the agitator of a washing machine, Red Green is also noted for his insights into that most difficult of assembly jobs, human relationships. His previous bestselling tome, How to Do Everything, showed Red dipping his toe into the self-help genre with such items as "How to make dinner more romantic" and "The easy way to raise children." Now Red Green -- a veteran husband (of Bernice), father, soul-searcher, philosopher and observer -- has devoted an entire book to sharing with other battle-weary and confused males all he has learned about the differences between the sexes. Set out in approximately chronological order, from teen dating to the last words of men ("You know, honey, in...

Red Green was recycling material long before the green revolution got underway. Look at the autmobiles he's driven over the years. Many of those were assembled using the same basic method employed for The Green Red Green: by welding together the surviving bits of some old wrecks. In this case, we're talking about the three Red Geen books published long ago by other, inferior publishers: Duct Tape Is Not Enough, a collection of newspaper columns by Red Green's alter-ego Steve Smith on surviving middle age; Red Green Talks Cars; and Red's literary debut The Red Green Book, a souvenir of the TV show.The selection for his best-of pretty much made itself. Out went the Steve Smith columns with once-topical references; out went the material from The Red Green Book that was in the voices of the other characters (he's been carrying those bums for too long) and out went very little from the perenially hilarious Cars. The resulting mass of...