21.   At the White House, the strategy seems to be to cooperate with Thompson and to pick a fight with Burton.

22.   -- Men often pick a fight and put the partner on the defensive.

23.   A pitch under your chin will anger you, although several players in baseball history have been angered and not attempted to pick a fight.

24.   A Nevada-based Internet real estate service is picking a fight with a popular Web site rating service run by Gomez Advisors Inc.

25.   After eight years of relentless price escalation, angry customers are slamming down phones, brokers said, and picking pointless fights with sellers.

26.   But Dr. Lofas still used holidays to pick fights with her stepsisters.

27.   But he could not collect if he did not finish, and so eventually, inevitably, someone began to pick a fight.

28.   But NTT seems to be picking its fights.

29.   But on Capitol Hill Wednesday, there was consensus that Weld had picked a fight that he probably cannot win.

30.   But the police, she said, asked her not to bring him back because he had picked fights with some of the other children.