Copyright © 2008 by David Sedaris

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Little, Brown and Company

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First eBook Edition: June 2008

Author’s note: The events described in these stories are realish. Certain characters have fictitious names and identifying characteristics.

Acknowledgment is made to the following, in which the stories in this collection first appeared, some differently titled or in slightly different form: Esquire: “Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?” and “That’s Amore”; GQ: “Town and Country”; The New Yorker: “It’s Catching,” “Keeping Up,” “The Understudy,” “This Old House,” “Road Trips,” “What I Learned,” “In the Waiting Room,” “Solution to Saturday’s Puzzle,” “Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool,” “Memento Mori,” “All the Beauty You Will Ever Need,” “Aerial,” “The Man in the Hut,” “April in Paris,” “Crybaby,” and “Old Faithful.” “The Monster Mash” was originally broadcast on This American Life. “Solution to Saturday’s Puzzle” also appeared in The Best American Travel Writing 2006. “Old Faithful” also appeared in The Best American Essays 2005.

ISBN: 978-0-316-03251-3