One Eight-hundred-am-i-nuts [signed] [first edition]

Margo Kaufman is just your normal married lady - husband, me, and pug makes three - trying to make sense out of a life where the 911 number at her local police station is answered by voice mail ("Press one, if you are being mugged"). As a longtime resident amid the steroid 'n' Rollerblade freak show of Venice, California, she's already observed the end of the world as we know it - and has lived to laugh about it.Margo always wished there were a hotline to call whenever she stumbled upon one of life's little peculiarities and wondered, Is it Life or is it me? Some number like 1-800-AM-I-NUTS? But since Ma bell wouldn't cooperate, she had to reach out and do the next best thing: write a column.1-800-AM-I-NUTS? is a wise, sassy laugh-out-loud collection of her spirited musings - both new and previously published in such publications as The New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Village Voice, and Cosmopolitan. Here, in one easy-to-use package, is a deluxe assortment of Margo Kaufman's "sanity checks."As intimate as your best friend and as comforting as a nonsenile grandparent, Margo calls 'em as she sees 'em - from Nicorette-gum junkies to male-ego transplants, from beauty addicts to control freaks - and shows you how a true nineties woman can successfully juggle the essentials: know-it-alls, people without shame, sensitive men ... and, of course, the dog.