To paraphrase an old soft drink commercial, "I'm a weasel, you're a weasel, he's a weasel, she's a weasel. Wouldn't you like to be a weasel, too?" Once we accept the fact that we are all capable of being weasels (if we're not already), we can get on with our lives. Such is the premise of Scott Adams's fifth book combining his popular comic strip with a primer on office politics, DILBERT AND THE WAY OF THE WEASEL.

We deal with weasels at work every day, from the colleague who always calls in sick on the first day of the baseball season to the boss who drops 30 files on your desk at 4:55 and wants them back first thing in the morning. Adams, through his alter ego, Dilbert, provides a light-hearted way to get through it all while maintaining one's sanity.

For those not familiar with the cartoon: Dilbert is "everyman" (provided everyman works as a computer techie in an office environment). He enjoys his job and does it well, although he would enjoy it a lot more if it weren't for the menagerie of lazy and/or abrasive co-workers and his "pointy-haired" boss who can't seem to find his head with both hands. Dilbert constantly contends with familiar issues that get in the way of actually doing work, such as status reports, countless mind-numbing meetings, expense account nit-picking finance drones and teaching his boss how to plug in his computer --- again.

Among the general topics covered in THE WAY OF THE WEASEL are "Avoiding Work the Weasel Way," "Entertaining Yourself at Work," "Negotiating Like a Weasel" and "Weaseliest Professions," which include executive assistants, management-book writers and criminals. There are weasels to be found in individual departments, too --- marketing, sales, accounting, etc. The author teaches all the ins and outs of weaselhood, such as the proper way to assign blame and how to deflect it from others.

Adams, a former computer geek in the "real world," has been hailed as an expert on corporate life. Although he writes primarily from the workers' point of view, he also appeals to the managers in the reading crowd: "When you work for a big company, the only way to succeed is by begging dozens of people to do the one thing they hate above all else, i.e. their jobs."

He incorporates many of the anecdotes e-mailed by his readers, who easily identify with his characters. Some of the missives reflect situations from the strip, which eerily parallel their own experiences, while others undoubtedly give Adams fodder for new and bizarre scenarios.

As amusing as THE WAY OF THE WEASEL is, it tends to run on a bit. "When I say 'weasels,' I'm sure you know what I mean," the author writes on the second page. "But that won't stop me from explaining it for a few hundred more pages . . . ," which he proceeds to do. But there are so many situations to cover, it's time well spent --- as long as you're not reading while you're supposed to be working, of course.