My Word's
Worth:

Archive, Volume 3

1. Two Years Before the Masthead -- reflecting on the first two years of the column

2. Take a Good Look -- people overlook and underestimate old ladies.

3. Things That Make Me Go "Huh?" -- sometimes the world does not make sense.

4. Learning To Be Plaid -- learning to forgive people for their imperfections and failures

5. Half-Wired -- online, but not a full-fledged geek

6. Half a Human -- how we learn to act our gender, or choose not to

7. Words To Be Wise -- we need words to think with

8. Saved by Katharine Hepburn -- the undying appeal of the screwball comedy

9. We're Number 300! -- I wouldn't put my town at the bottom of Forbes' list of most livable cities

10. Playing Hooky at the Start of School -- poems by my son, Brian Block

11. Give Me Liberty -- trying to understand libertarians, part I

12. Remote Control -- trying to understand Libertarians, part II

13. A Death in the Family -- the death of an independent bookstore is a sad thing

14. The Mouse Police -- on the joys of owning kittens

15. Something Wicked This Way Comes -- an appreciation of Stephen King

16. While You've Got It, Flaunt It -- my list of things not to die before doing

17. The Internet Made Me Do It -- yet another bad rap fastened on the internet

18. Shiny Happy People -- on how incredibly easy it is to make people in TV ads blissfully happy

19. Power Failure -- we have far more power than we realize

20. the Almost Perfect State -- my idea of an almost perfect utopia

21. Advice for Desperate Men, revised -- on buying gifts for women

22. Lighting Candles -- on the teachers that light candles in our minds and change our lives

23. To Serve You Better -- why is it so many frustrating annoying innovations in our lives are supposed to serve us better?

24. Drawing with a Skewer -- on editorial cartoons

25. The Cat's Christmas

26. Thanks for Christmas -- on the utter sappy enjoyment with which I approach the season.

27. My Year in Books

28. Attention Deficit -- how hard it is to pay attention when there's so much stuff going on

29. Oh, Do You Know the Muppet Man? -- a tribute to Jim Henson

30. Testing, 1,2,3,4 -- one of the great untested assumptions is that tests actually do measure what they say they measure

31. Making Monsters -- how bullies were allowed to turn into monsters because none of the adults would stop them

32. Ask Better Questions -- if you want better answers

33. Stuck Together with God's Glue -- what we gain from suffering

34. Starr Chamber -- on the special prosecutor's absolute determination to find something to get Bill Clinton on

35. Categorical Denial -- our mental categories can inhibit our understanding of the world

36. Winning the Title -- on choosing good titles for columns, books, and such

37. One of a Kind -- we desperately want to be unique and to be known.

38. Five Letter Word -- how did "adult" come to mean depraved?

39. All By Myself -- we give ourselves credit for all our accomplishments, but give no credit to the society that helped us do it

40. Ghetto Blaster -- some thoughts on using the strengths of the people in the inner city to improve their neighborhoods and lives

41. The Queen of Touchy-Feely -- on the orgasms of sentiment surrounding Princess Di's death

42. A Sharing of Books -- my friends and I talk about books we love

43. The Woman from F.I.B.S. -- a tribute to Christine Lavin

44. Roses by a Different Name -- makers of modern day proverbs

45. How I Spent My Summer Vacation -- my first trip to the Rockies

46. A Field of Dreams -- on the unreal but lovely world of college campuses

47. Sexual Harassment -- trying to figure out some rules men could safely abide by

48. Getting to Solla Sollew -- a tribute to Dr. Seuss

49. Arguably Better -- some civilized ground rules for dealing openly with conflict

50. Borders Skirmish -- an answer to the librarian who claimed Borders does a better job than libraries do

51. Scribbles on Pages -- my answer to the question, "how do you think up this stuff, anyway?"