My dad of course like a lot of Asian parents wanted me to be an engineer or doctor and never could understand why I would want to be a lawyer. And then when I first said I wanted to run for office he thought that was absolutely insane.

My dad sold encyclopedias and my mom worked in a factory office.

The military is a very cool world to write about. I went down to Ft. Benning Ga. for military training and I learned a lot about soldiers and officers and why they joined up and what their life has been like.

If I took over the 'Glamour' offices for a day I would put Joe Pesci on the cover. I would say 'We've got to change all these magazines a little bit. We have to bring out a different version of what is like cool. You know what's winning. Joe Pesci Burt Reynolds.'

I've always been scared of advertising folk. I've met them at parties and I've been to their offices and I've always found them intimidatingly cool. At one company I visited they held their meetings in a caravan that had somehow been installed in the place a rather more exotic place to gather than the typical BBC glass box.

I actually use a computer a lot. I have three computers that I use on a regular basis - one is on my desk top in my Washington office another is at home and I have my laptop that I use when I'm travelling.

Equipped with cell phones beepers and handheld computers the 'conspicuously industrious' blur the line between home and office by working anytime anywhere.

Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the coffee break.

Everything officers go through in any chase anywhere in the country but amped up 100 times! I'm right in the thick of things in a car going like 80 miles an hour and doing 360s in the middle of the road. It was a wild ride.

The senior officer who met with reporters in Baghdad said there had been 21 car bombings in the capital in May and 126 in the past 80 days. All last year he said there were only about 25 car bombings in Baghdad.