If you were among the thousands who played Trivial Pursuit during the 1980s and had said that the phrase catch-22 came before the book of the same title in response to one of the Literature questions, you would have been wrong: the book came first. Have you ever been in a situation in which you want a job but are told you do not have experience, and you know you cannot get experience unless you get the job? That's catch-22. As Webster's defines it, the term can also refer to anything that is illogical or unreasonable; something that causes the opposite of the desired effect; a case with two, alternatives, both bad; or simply as a catch. As used in the source of the phrase, however, catch- 22 refers to a no-win problem whose solution is impossible because the situation presents a self-reversing paradox. In Joseph...