BEST AUTHOR BEST : ED HELMS [2]

.-  WHAT is it about your personality that makes you fascinated by foul-ups?

I think because comedy is rooted in pain and suffering. I've spent my whole life instinctively tuning in to moments when things go wrong.

At this point, it's not so much fascination as it is a reflex.

.-  Who's the most foolish figure unearthed in research for the book, and why?

One strong contender is the U.S. military engineer who, during the Cold War, proposed nuking the Moon, just to show the Soviets how tough we were. Not land on it, Not colonize it. Just ................ detonate it.

.-  The most heroic?

JIMMY CARTER. In 1952, long before be became president, he helped lead a dangerous cleanup of a particular meltdown in Canada's Chalk River reactor.

.-  Is there a recent attempt that seems likely to make it into a sequel to this book?

DOGE

.-  ''HUMANITY  has demonstrated an uncanny ability to bounce back '' from snafus, you write. Still feeling that way?

YES, I am. But to your point, we also have a nasty habit of bouncing backward just as quickly.

Sadly, human progress is not a straight line. It's more like a cosmic game of Chutes and Ladders.

.-  What's your favorite book no one else has heard of?

'' Longitude,'' by Dava Sobel. It's a gripping, soulful history of the race to determine one's longitude at sea, which is way more exciting than it sounds.

.-  You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

Oscar Wilde, Marcus Aurelius and Anne Lamott. That should make for a good mix of profound insight and hard laughs.

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.