If you like Paula Poundstone's ironic and blindingly intelligent humor, you'll love this wryly observant, funny, and touching book.

Paula Poundstone on . . .

The sources of her self-esteem: "A couple of years ago I was reunited with a guy I knew in the fifth grade. He said, "All the other fifth-grade guys liked the pretty girls, but I liked you." It's hard to know if a guy is sincere when he lays it on that thick.

The battle between fatigue and informed citizenship: I play a videotape of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer every night, but sometimes I only get as far as the theme song (da da-da-da da-ah) before I fall asleep. Sometimes as soon as Margaret Warner says whether or not Jim Lehrer is on vacation I drift right off. Somehow just knowing he's well comforts me.

The occult: I need to know exactly what day I'm gonna die so that I don't bother putting away leftovers the night before.

TV's misplaced priorities: Someday in the midst of the State of the Union address they'll break in with, "We interrupt this program to bring you a little clip from Bewitched."

Travel: In London I went to the queen's house. I went as a tourist--she didn't invite me so she could pick my brain: "What do you think of my face on the pound? Too serious?"

Air-conditioning in Florida: If it were as cold outside in the winter as they make it inside in the summer, they'd put the heat on. It makes no sense.

The scandal: The judge said I was the best probationer he ever had. Talk about proud.

With a foreword by Mary Tyler Moore