I'm not a huge fan of Sloane Crosley. I Was Told There'd Be Cake is virtually unreadable, and I couldn't believe it had actually been published until I learned one tiny detail. Before she became a writer, Ms. Crosley worked in publishing. She knew important people. She started emailing her stories to some of these people and boom, she got a book deal.

How Did You Get This Number is a quantum leap over its predecessor. It's got depth, intelligence, and humor, though on eight or ten occasions the thoughtful reader will scream, "Oh, God -- is she really trying to pass this shit off as the truth?"

Still, one passage in particular bothered me:

[Bizarre board game] Girl Talk was . . . strangely complicated, a layered enterprise with rules complex enough to make the ancient Chinese game of Go look like Candy Land. Before you put your fate in the hands of a plastic wheel, you had a choice. You could either tell the truth or pick from a series of dares. These ranged from the coy ("Call a boy and ask him who he likes") to the suspect ("Act like Pee-wee Herman for one minute") to the dehumanizing ("Lap up a bowl of water like a dog."

Imagine, if you will, the legal repercussions of a game manufactured today in which underage girls are encouraged to call strangers' homes in the middle of the night. . . . In hindsight, I am proud that I declined to imitate a convicted child molester or assume a doggie position in order to win a board game.

See, in the first paragraph, Ms. Crosley establishes a list of three items: call a boy, act like Pee Wee Herman, lap up water. In the second paragraph, she mentions three things she doesn't think people should do. Items one and three correspond to the first paragraph.

Which means, I think, that she's calling Pee Wee Herman a convicted child molester.

I hope somebody gets the word to Pee Wee. I'm sure he can use some money after being out of work for so long. As for Ms. Crosley, well, with anybody else I'd worry, but I'm pretty sure she knows a lawyer or two.