The original Why It Matters story sprawls across the following 251 numbered pieces. Following those you’ll find links to more recent CNF pieces.

• 1. The Mamas, The Papas, and The Grandpas
• 2. School’s Out Forever
• 3. When Am I Gonna Come Down?
• 4. My Dark Confession
• 5. Show Me the Way
• 6. Just For One Day
• 7. Your Dreams Were Your Ticket Out
• 8. You Can Check Out Any Time You Like
• 9. The Cutout Bin
• 10. Loose Nut

• 11. Hey It’s Good To Be Back Home Again
• 12. Does Anybody Want To Get Mellow?
• 13. Never Before Have I Turned On You
• 14. What Time Is It?
• 15. A Rambling Prologue To A Long Overdue Post
• 16. Your Lightnin’s All I Need
• 17. Like A World Without Sun
• 18. If Never I Met You
• 19. Who Can Go the Distance?
• 20. This One Goes Out to the Ones I Left Behind

• 21. Who Are You?
• 22. Life Begins at the Hop
• 23. Here Comes the Savage Day
• 24. Thank You Driver For Getting Me Here
• 25. A Live Wire, Barely A Beginner
• 26. This Is the First Song Off Our New Album
• 27. I’ve Been Trying to Get a Message Through the Air to You
• 28. Leaving the Things That You Love From Mind
• 29. You Don’t Know What the Sound Is, Darlin’
• 30. Strewn With Time’s Dead Flowers

• 31. I Was Walking In He Was Walking Out
• 32. What’s Your Favorite Color Baby?
• 33. I Don’t Know How You Were Inverted
• 34. Little John the Conqueroo
• 35. Take Your Time, Don’t Live Too Fast
• 36. So I Lit A Fire, Isn’t It Good?
• 37. Loneliness Will Haunt You, Will You Sacrifice?
• 38. What Song Is It You Want to Hear?
• 39. That Sleepwalk Should Be Over By Now
• 40. To Learn How To Love And Forget How To Hate

• 41. We Rock At Dawn On the Front Line
• 42. Changes Aren’t Permanent (But Change Is)
• 43. A One-Way Ticket, Only One Way To Go
• 44. Won’t You Help Me Girl Just As Soon As You Can?
• 45. As Deep As Any Ocean, As Sweet As Any Harmony
• 46. Shake the Dust Off Of Your Wings and the Tears Out Of Your Eyes
• 47. Rising Up To the Challenge Of Our Rivals
• 48. Once We Had An Easy Ride and Always Get the Same
• 49. This Is A Public Service Announcement (With Guitars)
• 50. The Punk and the Godfather (Why It Matters Revisited)

• The Cutout Bin Revisited
• 51. I Hate the Teachers and the Principal, Don’t Wanna Be Taught to be No Fool
• 52. Devil’s In the House of the Rising Sundae
• 53. Try To Use A Mirror, No Bullet Or Knife
• 54. It’s So Easy To Fly Through A Window
• 55. At the Late Night Double Feature Picture Show
• 56. The Brightest Fireplace Glows In Every Face
• 57. I’d Give You Everything I’ve Got For A Little Piece Of Mind
• 58. I Can’t Wait For You to Operate
• Ventriloquism For Dummies
• 59. Pretty Young Things, Repeat After Me
• 60. I Wondered If I Had Enough Class

• 61. Bewitched
• 62. Turn and Face the Strange
• 63. The Alton Ellis Incident
• 64. I Started Drifting To A Different Place
• 65. Wherein I Am Completely Wrong
• 66. Give Me Three Steps Toward The Door
• 67. I’m Up and Down and In Between
• 68. Just Sitting Here Watching The Wheels Go Round and Round
• 69. But You Know You’re Not Dreaming, Signore
• 70. The Dream Is Always The Same

• 71. Surrender My Good Life Or Bad
• 72. But I Swear It Was In Self-Defense
• 73. I’d Like It If They Like Us, But I Don’t Think They Like Us
• 74. Gonna Get Inside Your Bitter Mind
• 75. I Don’t Believe In Peter Pan, Frankenstein Or Superman
• 76. Return Of The Son Of Cutout Bin
• 77. Everyone’s Breaking Past My Speed Of Sound
• 78. But Ain’t That America
• 79. No One Will Guide You Through Armagideon Time

• 80. Though I Am Weary I Can’t Stop To Rest
• 81. You Know That The Hypnotized Never Lie
• 82. If I Could Buy My Reasoning I’d Pay To Lose
• 83. Not Everyone Can Carry The Weight Of The World
• 84. Happiness I Cannot Feel And Love To Me Is So Unreal
• 85. Between The Velvet Lies There’s A Truth That’s Hard As Steel
• 86. Forgotten Lies Aim To Distract Me
• 87. Who’s Going To Teach Me Peace And Happiness?
• 88. Oh I Have Been Out Searching With the Black Book In My Hand
• 89. Radio’s On and I’m Moving ‘Round the Place

• 90. I’ve Got A Handful Of This, What Do I Do With It?
• 91. More Fun In the New World
• 92. In the Eyes Of the Confessor You Can’t Tell A Lie
• 93. Face To Face and Back To Back
• 94. A Message That I’m Sending Out Like A Telegraph
• 95. And I’ll Lay Right Down In My Favorite Place
• 96. How Long Can I Carry This Monkey Around?
• 97. Keep Your Eyes on the Road, Your Hands Upon the Wheel
• 98. Lots of Trouble, Lots of Bubble
• 99. Falcon Spirals to the Ground

• 100. When Two Tribes Go To War
• 101. December
• 102. I’m Relying On Your Common Decency
• 103. Take Me By the Hand This Is All I Can Offer You
• 104. You’re A Daisy If You Do
• 105. Giving Me Everything Inside and Out
• 106. They’re Gonna Find the Queen is a Man
• 107. All My Goodness Has Turned to Badness
• 108. These City Lights, They Shine as Silver and Gold
• 109. It’s Up to Me Now, My Daddy Has Gone Away

• 110. But I Just Wanna Stay in the Garage All Night
• 111. What’s It Gonna Be, Boy?
• 112. I’d Hate To Look Into Those Eyes and See an Ounce of Pain
• 113. I Have Only One Burning Desire…
• 114. You Don’t Know How to Play the Game
• 115: It’s A Beautiful Day For A Rerun
• 116. You Act As If You Just Don’t Care
• 117. Stars Will Fall From Dark Skies
• 118. The Boys Are Back In Town
• 119. Return of the Son of Son of Return of the Son of the Cutout Bin

• 120. The Turn of a Friendly Card
• 121. Goodnight, You Moonlight Ladies
• 122. Don’t Leave Me Hanging on the Telephone
• 123. Tell Your Mama Babe
• 124. When You Change With Every New Day
• 125. Whatsoever I’ve Feared Has Come To Life
• 126. The Eyes That Just Stare, and the Glance at the Clock
• 127. Feels So Good
• 128. Staring at the Sea, Staring at the Sand
• 129. Count Your Coins and Throw Them Over My Shoulder

• 130. Water Was Running, Children Were Running
• 131. I’ll Take You Where You Really Need to Be
• 132. Out to the Air Above
• 133. I’ll Meet You Any Time You Want in Our Italian Restaurant
• 134. If I Worked My Hands in Wood, Would You Still Love Me?
• 135. Down Goes Frazier
• 136. Mirror in the Bathroom, Please Talk to Me
• 137. How Can We Dance When Our Earth is Turning?
• 138. Lifestyles of the Fresh and Fly
• 139. Thirty Square Feet

• 140. Headin’ Into Twilight
• 141. Daddy Rabbit
• 142. If There is Music We Can Use It
• 143. And in These Days When Darkness Falls Early
• 144. There’s No Need to Argue
• 145. Whatever This World Can Give To Me
• 146. The Barbarossa Express
• 147. Senseless Working Overtime
• 148. Falling on My Head Like a Memory
• 149. As Lonely as the Road I’m On

• 150. The Inevitable Death of the Quincymobile
• 151. To Some Other Garden of Sweet Delight
• 152. Many Times I’ve Gazed Along the Open Road
• 153. The Sincerest Tree in the Aluminum Forest
• 154. Hanging Out by the State Line
• 155. There’s Always Something Happening and it’s Usually Quite Loud
• 156. Fragments for a New Years Story
• 157. Disturbance at the Hanner House
• 158. Martin Luther King and the Great Hopscotch Leap
• 159. Crushin’

• 160. It Ain’t Easy Living Like You Wanna
• 161. Cindy Incidentally
• 162. The Closet Monster
• 163. But the Music Makes Her Want to be the Story
• 164. The Untimely Death of Corporal Otis Stafford
• 165. The Waiting is the Hardest Part
• 166. Would You Like to Trip Now?
• 167. It’s a Sad Affair When There’s No One There
• 168. Last Lions Roar Before They’re Tamed
• 169. Since I Packed Up and Left On My Own

• 170. Here’s To Every Time That You Rocked the Boat
• 171. She Was Holding It Back It Hurts So Bad
• 172. Maybe He’s Caught in the Mood
• 173. Telling Myself It’s Not As Hard, Hard, Hard As It Seems
• 174. You Can Taste the Bright Lights (But You Won’t Get Them for Free)
• 175. With Two Cats in the Yard Life Used to be so Hard
• 176. With the Devil Snapping at My Heels
• 177. People Going Nowhere Taken For A Ride
• 178. Truth and Soul
• 179. There’s No People Like Show People
• 180. Everyone’s Creeping Up to the Money God
• 181. It Doesn’t Matter To Me, Chasing the Clouds Away
• 182. Thanksgiving

• 183. Or Are You Really Scheming To Take My Ship Away?

• 184. And Butterflies Are Free To Fly
• 185. It’s A Lot Like Life
• 186. Lies Lies Lies Yeah
• 187. For Art’s Sake
• 188. Heads I Win Tails You Lose (Lord It’s Such A Crime)

• 189. Long Legs and Burgundy Lips

• 190. The Baptism
• 191. Out All Night, Sleep All Day (I Know What You’re Doing)
• 192. No Talk and Then All Action
• 193. Jimmy Tickets
• 194. Mr. Nice Guy
• 195. I Still Don’t Know What I Was Waiting For
• 196. Get Out of Bed, There’ll Be No More Napping (Wake Up!)
• 197. When I’m Driving In My Car
• 198. Mr. Warmth
• 199. One In A Million

• 200. Can’t Happen Here
• 201. Stray Party
• 202. Rabbit vs. Predator
• 203. Where’s Johnny?
• 204. Sittin’ On Top of the World
• 205. The Inevitable Death of the Cordoba
• 206. Drive-In Saturday
• 207. We Go Round and Round and Round
• 208. We Love You, Pacific Ocean Blue
• 209. Lessons Learned From an Oscar Winner

• 210. They Come With Smiles
• 211. Two Years Ago the Seed Was Planted
• 212. No More of that Jazz
• 213. And I Know What’s Happening
• 214. Shocker
• 215. The Cookies Are Always Just Out Of Reach
• 216. So You Want To Be An Assistant Film Editor
• 217. The Human Shield
• 218. You Know For Us These Are The Days
• 219. The Mid-Twenty Joys Around A Heart That’s Black and Blue

• • • 220. I’m Too Full To Swallow My Pride
    • 221. That’s When It’s Calling Me Back Home
    • 222. The Feeling Begins
    • 223. Are You Sleeping With the Stars Tonight, or are You Blue With Cold?
    • 224. I Saw A River Turn Into A Tapestry
    • 225. When I Look Into Your Eyes There’s Just Devils and Dust
    • 226. Don’t Know If I Should Laugh Or Cry
    • 227. That Time I Found Out I’m Kind Of Racist
    • 228. Four and Seven
    • 229. Take Me By My Little Hand and Go Like This
    • 230. Top-Forty Cast Off From A Record Stand

• 231. I Really Don’t Care Anymore About All the Jim-Jim’s in This Town
• 232. Mirror in the Bathroom Please Talk Free
• 233. Unpaid Bills In Afghanistan Hills
• 234. Blue Days Black Nights (Doo Wah Doo Lang)
• 235. James Scared Stupid
• 236. Hey Verne, It’s Me, James
• 237. I Cannot Get Over the Reality of My Surroundings
• 238. Surprise Surprise (So You Rubbed Your Eyes)
• 239. They’ll Slam Ya Down to the Street Top

• • 240. Anarchy Is Loosed
  • 241. James Gets His Nipple Pierced
  • 242. Came Home Last Night There Was Fire and Smoke on the TV
  • 243. Tropic of Courtroom
  • 244. Into the Deep End
  • 245. The Girl Who Jumped Into the River
  • 246. Insomnia
  • 247. Dope Run
  • 248. Now That the Smoke’s Gone and the Air is Clear
  • 249. Scratch the Ice Let the Telephone Ring
  • 250. All the Greenery Is Comin’ Down, Boy
  • 251. The Love You Take Is Equal to the Love You Make
  • 17 Butterflies
  • Waiting for the Wind to Blow Me Away
  • Park La Brea
  • A Memorial Day Story
  • The Road Trip
  • The Little Kitchen With the Sad Telephone
  • The Rusty Rat
  • The Yellow Sign
  • The Bulldozer
  • Siesta
  • A Ghost Made Me Write This
  • Why I Write What I Write (and Why I Read What I Read)
  • Fake Santa
  • When Music Breaks Us
  • The Mutable Measure of Writing Success
  • The Velvet Couch
  • You Never Thought You’d Be Alone This Far Down the Line

  • The King of Lunch

  • The Tale of the Swamp Beast (or 45 Years In the Life Of A Les Paul)

  • Drawing From Life

• • The Value of Construction Paper Holidays
  • Christmas In April
  • Memories All the Way Down
  • It’s A Ghost Story, I Promise
    

  • The True Tale of the Blue Shark
  • The Dreams That You Dare to Dream

  • The Last Halloween