Interestingly, though I doubt it matters to anyone besides myself, many of the inside pages of this column were originally versions of opening paragraphs for the column as a whole. Primarily this was a case of thinking through writing. Until I'd actually written a few paragraphs I really didn't know where all this was leading. Some of those leads were dead ends, while others turned out to be branches rather than the trunk. I may have originally thought I knew what I wanted to focus on, but it was only when those thoughts showed up as words on the screen that I was able to truly clarify my thoughts to myself. Those thoughts that turned out to be tangential to what ultimately became the focus of this column found their way to inside pages (while others, even less tangential, found their way to the trash).