American parents were more likely to say things like, What if? What if?

The What If? of 1989

But what if there actually is a fire?

Even so, it is worth asking, What if Schabowski had not messed up?

What if that Copernican insignificance was actually all wrong?

I know how I would vote.

What if I fail?

What if he fails?

What if there are truths about justice, and you could just look around in this world and see which things participated, partook of that form of justice?

If Jesus were to come to us today, escaping from Herod, we would believe Herod s version of the story, or we would debate and write articles, asking what if Herod were right to want to kill the Christ Child? What if Jesus were to some day become a threat?

How about you get on the phone?

Boy How about this?

If he doesn't come, what'll you do?

So what?

Or what if I can take that information and put it into an organic shape up on the screen?

Someone from their board came and said, What would you do if you had carte blanche in a classroom?

One could now imagine much more clearly what might happen if a nuclear bomb exploded.

And so began conversation that was to last for hours, until one of them asked me What if the soldier was going to kill you?

What if human consciousness isn't the end all and be all of Darwinism? What if we are all just pawns in corn's clever strategy game to rule the Earth? Author Michael Pollan asks us to see the world from a plant's eye view.

What if they're doing important work?

What if Nathan Here it comes. Yay!

And watching ?What If!

What if they had gotten their hands on a nuclear weapon?

What if the reality is the reverse?

And basically to ask the questions What if art was aware that we were looking at it?

What if, in the coming crowd of nine billion ...

What if they're thinking about something important?

If you were in my place, what would you do?

If you were in my place, what would you do?

What would you say if you were in my place?

What would you say if you were in my place?

And our translation of that, using a lot of the thinking built up over the 40 years, is to say, what if that, instead of being just a pipe, what if it is a lifeline?

When I was in Huntington, trying to get a few things to work when they weren't, I thought If I had a magic wand, what would I do? And I thought, You know what?

One wonders what would have happened if Luzhkov needed to face re election (his term expires in October 2011).

So what if then you took the story of Abraham, which is a third side story, what if that could be because Abraham stands for hospitality what if that could be an antidote to terrorism?

So, if this is true, what can we do?

Now, what will happen? What if they come to, you know, suck up our oceans for the hydrogen?

What was that about, I m saying. What was that about?

So what if we evolved as hunting pack animals?

What would you do if you were ten years younger?

What would you do if you were ten years younger?

Spend a half hour on a careful analysis of the consequences ( but what if they ve set up a barricade behind the doors? but what if they panic from fright? and so on)? Or would you just throw it?

So I was you know, the door was being slammed in my face, it's incredibly cold, and I'm trying to think, What would the hero do in a movie, if I was writing this as a movie script?

I've often wondered, what would Fildes have done had he been asked to paint this painting in the modern era, in the year 2011?

1. Don t feign confidence. Nobody likes uncertainty we all wish the experts knew exactly what will happen.