Here are previously unpublished stories - wacky as they are enlightening - along with favorites from WALKING THROUGH CLEAR WATER IN A POOL PAINTED BLACK and other publications.

Also, the best of Cookie's art columns from DETAILS magazine, and the funniest of her advice columns from THE EAST VILLAGE EYE, on everything from homeopathic medicine to how to cut your cocaine with a healthy substance.

This collection is as much an autobiography as it is a map of downtown New York in the early '80s - that moment before BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY, before the art world exploded, before New York changed into a yuppie metropolis, while it still had a glimmer of bohemian life.

With an introduction by John Waters.