Pages 1 - 40 Summary and Analysis

In the introduction, "White Socks in a Pantyhose World," Erma Bombeck, the author, says that there is no time in history that has provided more fodder for worrying, and that she is a classic worrier. She describes some of the things she worries about, ranging from one of her children marrying an Eskimo who will then set her adrift when she is too old to care for herself to Carol Channing going bald. She says that a big worry is that researchers will release information that lettuce is actually fattening, meaning she has wasted a great deal of time dieting. She then turns her attention to research and says that there was a researcher once who had a research rat named Lionel who survived massive experiments but died soon after the researcher took him home as a pet for...