27.50), is widely regarded as the world's leading paremiologist (or proverbs expert!) In this entertaining new book, he looks at the uses to which proverbs have been put - political propaganda, advertising, and medical superstition - and their role in the modern world. Ranging from regional proverbs ('Vermont has two seasons - winter and the Fourth of July') to Americanizations ('Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater'), and homespun wisdom ('An apple a day keeps the doctor away'), the book also contains 36 black-and-white halftones illustrating the place of proverbs in popular culture.
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Mayer et al. (1994) studied this question.