The study of statistics need not and should not become a series of progressive exercises in calculated tedium. If it is approached with the proper frame of mind, statistics can be one of the most exciting fields of study; it has applications in virtually all areas of human endeavor and cuts across countless fields of study. H.G. Wells, the nineteenth-century prophet, remarked, "Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write." Keep this thought constantly in mind.