Book excerpt: The Intellectual Handyman On Art is a compilation of Gary Peterson essays pertaining to the arts and sciences, mostly. Being an author, artist, and musician, Peterson has the tools to construct elaborate mental scenarios whether he's waxing analytic about art aesthetics or just tinkering with wordplay. He can turn a phrase with a pipe wrench or warp your perspective with a french curve. His essays are tributes to critical thinking, each one crafted like a top-forty pop song with the rigor of a doctoral thesis. These ruminations provide high-grade literary nourishment for your left brain, supplemented with enough humor, passion and warm fuzzy sentiment to tickle your right cortex as well. And illustrations aplenty. You don't need a PhD to enjoy these philosophical anecdotes, but it couldn't hurt. You can read The Intellectual Handyman On Art at the beach, bus stop, or in the staid ambience of your estate library, all with the same result: edutainment of the first order.