Now that I own an actual copy of the Barguments book, I've been testing it out with friends and strangers. I cringe when someone first picks up the book and flips through it. (Hint to people with friends who are authors: Looking at someone's book for less than 45 seconds is the equivalent to tossing said book over your shoulder and flipping on the television.)

The worst moment: When a bargument is read aloud and everyone answers the same way. Did I miscalculate in asking readers to pick the better songwriter between Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley? (Would Marley vs. Springsteen have been better? I think that was the original version.) Will anyone give up sunglasses over shorts? Only my sales ranking on Amazon.com will tell.

[Someone must be a fan. I just noticed Barguments has shot up to book No. 106,080 on Amazon, making it the 69th most popular Question & Answer book. It barely edged out The Standard Basic Dictionary for Programming but lost the 68th slot to Data Structures and Algorithms. Well, at least I'm in good company.]

But this blog offers some clues. I usually don't vote on the polls you can find nearby, but I did on the bargument asking you to adopt a robot from TV or the movies. So far, Rosie from the Jetsons holds a narrow lead, followed by KITT (the car from Knight Rider) and then R2-D2. Ultraman -- the giant Japanese robot summoned by a remote control -- has only one vote, and that's from me.

Is your world so safe that you feel confident you'll never need an eight-story robot capable of shooting laser beams? Have you not been listening to John McCain?