In The Maine Woods , Henry David Thoreau writes, "The next dam ‘was about fifteen miles’ farther north, down the Allegash, and it was dead water so far. We had been told in Bangor of a man who lived alone, a sort of hermit, at that dam, to take care of it, who spent his time tossing a bullet from one hand to the other, for want of employment,—as if we might want to call on him. This sort of tit-for-tat intercourse between his two hands, bandying to and fro a leaden subject, seems to have been his symbol for society." This sort of tit-for-tat intercourse … bandying to and fro … In 2001, I was a newspaper reporter and copy editor who had the opportunity to write a weekly column for the Sports section of The Montana Standard in Butte, Montana. My male colleagues had creative column names and in a bit of jest and a moment of cleverness, "Tiff for Tat" – my weekly column name – was born. For two years I wrote a variety of columns, featuring unique characters w