Singles of the world, unite!
The AASP aspires to be the AARP for the unmarried.

Let's face it: Despite its often coveted freedoms (not answering to someone else comes to mind), singledom has its downside, too. In addition to the stigma being alone carries in many social situations and the pressure within our society to marry, single people don't enjoy the financial and legal benefits of married couples.

Take heart, solitary souls: The 5-year-old American Association for Single People (unmarriedamerica.org) is trying to do for the unmarried what the powerhouse AARP has done for seniors: give them a greater voice in making public policy. The group isn't anti-marriage; members simply stress that they shouldn't be penalized for being single.

"Discrimination and unfair treatment of single people permeate society," says co-founder Tom Coleman, a lawyer in Glendale, Calif. Strengthening workplace pension and health benefits for singles to match those of married people has become a primary focus of the group's 3,500 members.

Although their ranks are no match for the clout carried by the AARP's 35 million members, census stats hint at singles' hidden potential: 86 million Americans, nearly 40% of adults, are single, and in 300 cities a majority of households are headed by an unmarried adult. "Singles are perceived as losers, someone who is lonely and defective. We're out to change that," Coleman says.

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Read between the lines to unlock the puzzle
Literary puzzles offer more than a story: Clues in the pictures and text lead to a real prize. Magician David Blaine is offering a prize valued at $100,000 to the reader who unravels clues in his 2002 memoir, Mysterious Stranger. (At press time, it was unclaimed.) The newest literary puzzle: "The Whistle Pig" (Canvasback Press, $14.95) by Duck Miller, a pseudonym adopted by the author of this short-story collection that hints at the whereabouts of an "unmistakable key" to be found on public land. ("Whistle pig," Miller explains, is an Appalachian term for "groundhog.") Why cloak his identity? When British artist Kit Williams' literary puzzle picture book "Masquerade" came out in 1979, he was hounded by stalkers looking for a golden, bejeweled hare (found three years later) to which his book alluded. "I wanted to protect myself and my family if we had similar success," says the New York-based Miller. One hint he offers: "In the movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," the loot was hidden under a big W in a park, two palm trees crossed. That's what these clues are like." He's mum on what, if anything, can be opened by the key. Its value, he says, is in finding it. But, he adds: "You can discover lots of things on an intellectual level by reading the book. That's just as important as finding the key." For more info, go to thewhistlepig.net.

Contributing: Jane Boursaw, Gary Stern