I Thought He Was a Speed Bump-- And Other Excuses from Life in the Fast Lane: And Other Excuses from Life in the Fast Lane

Self-syndicated newspaper columnist Marotta, who has written for Woman's Day and Parents , here offers some 50 of her brief and gently humorous columns written over 10 years. Exploring the vagaries and vicissitudes of middle-class family life, Marotta writes breezily readable prose. She can wring a column out of the battle to fight her penchant for cleaning, out of Christmas cards that boast of their senders' good fortune and out of the fun she finds in daily encounters. We meet her children--``two long-legged fawns and a little squat gnome''--and learn how they grow up. Surely readers will identify with children who mangle Christmas songs into lines like ``Round John Virgin'' and convert the Lord's Prayer into ``Harold be thy name.'' Occasionally, Marotta reveals a bit more edge to her wit, declaring that the Latinate phrase ``Ibid.'' means ``boy am I sick of writing this paper,'' and likening the issue of young children's grasp of sex to the old Watergate question: ``What Do They Know and When Did They Know It.'' This is mostly enjoyable fluff. Author tour. (Mar.)