It turned out that members liked humor better than housekeeping so, thus emboldened, I continued to write the humor pieces once a month for more than a decade.  When the newsletter eventually folded, I moved the column to the Internet where it attracted readers from all over the world.

Having to write just one column per month, was a breeze:  Plenty of time to pick a topic and plenty of time to refine it.  I also had the luxury of abandoning those topics that didn't quite work. 

The disadvantage, of course, was that no sane person would expect to fill a 272-page book at the rate of three pages per month.  And I didn't either, at first.  But months tumbled into years and years into a decade, by which time I was able to distill the 88 pieces I liked best and, presto, a book was born.