A fine selection of early columns by Bill McClellan, the long-time human interest columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. There are stories of various unfortunates' encounters with the police and the courts, stories about people who seem to have drawn the short straw when luck or brains were handed out, touching stories of people who persevere through misfortune for their loved ones, and humorous self-deprecating stories highlighting McClellan's own personal foibles.

Pg. 189 has an account of Jim Stoien, the former PhD candidate who, after being hit by a car in 1975 was in a coma for 8 weeks, and woke up with diminished physical and mental capacities. Since 1981 he has delivered newspapers through the hospital complex where I work. When he comes to our lab, I help him push his cart back up the ramp outside the lab, and he gives me one of the penny candies he buys in bulk for when he stops at Children's Hospital. I had no idea he used to live in Florissant and graduated from McCluer High School.

The other column that particularly caught my interest is on pg. 88, about McClellan getting his just deserts after laughing when the family dog slipped and turned turtle on the ice while doing her business. McClellan ventured outside in just a bathrobe to get the newspaper, and found he couldn't make his way up the ice back to his house. The family was inside, asleep. Tia, the dog, was watching and looked vaguely disappointed when McClellan was finally rescued from an embarrassing death from exposure. ( )