YOU CAN'T PUSH A STRING UP A HILL (a synopsis)-STRUNG UP: Why helping your cousins can only lead to ruin - no good deed goes unpunished -A STRING ALONG: The mis-adventures of a screenwriter in Hollywood at a Pitch Fest, trying to get his screenplay accepted.-BLAME IT ON RENO: a romantic comedy screenplay treatment about two couples, lifelong friends, who go to Reno to get married, but get so drunk on the wedding night, they marry the wrong partner and live happily.-THE HAPPINESS ALCHEMIST: The adventures of Aloysius Williams and how they tested his belief in the need for happiness.-JAKE, THE SNAKE: A complaint about a friend who was a bully, coward and successfully business man.-CANE & ABE: The story of two friends whose lives go in opposite directions yet somehow teach the same life lessons.-PUSHING ON A STRING: An American and an Anglo-Caribbean discuss culture shock while traveling across the Sahara desert.-THE HELPER: A poem.-THE POET: Working with poets is like pushing a string up a hill; only those with limitless patience need apply.-PULLING ON A STRING: What is the meaning of life? Perhaps you find it going for a swim?-LIGHT-FINGURED LOUIE: The adventure of a thief and his conversion to Christianity.-TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN: It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was a twentieth century marriage - the perfect imperfection.-ANOTHER COUNTRY: An African-American man and an Anglo-Caribbean man meet in Israel and discover that it's culture that connects and divides people, not color -MONEY: PUSHING ON A STRING: If all economists were laid end to end, they would still not reach a conclusion. A study of the origins of the term "pushing on a string" and a look at how economists screw up the economy.-CULTIVATING BLINDNESS: A poem.-SEASONS ON A ROPE: The trials and tribulations of an immigrant who does everything to fit into American society but runs afoul of a twist of fate.-HAWAIIAN HANG-UP: A son returns to his family in Hawaii for his father's funeral and finds himself caught up in the family's gangster past and present - "Do the meek inherit the earth?"-ROLL OF THE DICE: The ills of gambling clash with the sensitivities of a man who only wants to help.-THE PRODIGAL FATHER: No matter what you he's done (or hasn't done), you can't give up on your father -ONLY IN AMERICA: A young boy from Ghana comes to America on a visit and is confounded by the use of a ubiquitous and uniquely American word.-THE VANITIES OF DESIRE: A poem.-THE END OF MY ROPE: After eleven years enduring petty racism, obdurate spitefulness, pointless bickering and cowardly and deceitful behavior, I had had enoughThe characters in this book come alive and seem to be telling us to focus on which end of the string the influence lies. In other words, in any given situation, who needs to change, me or the other guy? You are in for a treat.Sue Stoney,