In fact, it's so even-steven we practically keep score cards.

"Even if it doesn't do anything, you've got to just keep it even-steven.

But in a new study of family dynamics, Kramer has found compelling evidence against obsessively even-steven parenting.

I reckon you could trade it even-steven for, say, the Star of India."

Not exactly even-steven with Ms. Stiles, who talked about the rigors of television interviews.

I'd hate to tackle you even-steven.

Not exactly even-steven.

So they're even-steven on that."

It was never an even-steven friendship; Mr. Blair risked his popularity in Britain when he stood by Mr. Bush and supported the war.

The only way you can justify that now is to show that it's an even-steven trade, so that the property owner is not being required to hand over more than his fair share."

"If the offers were even-steven, I might have a preference for Bell Atlantic because it's more liquid, but what I really care about is just getting more money for my shareholders."

On one of my visits, Madonna had just left the shop with Ms. Paltrow, and you can imagine how he must have enjoyed giving the Material Girl some Bronx bully, just to keep everything even-steven.

I can't disagree with the even-steven rule. . . but my reason for thinking that Dr. Gabriel's solution will not work is this: A lottery, even meticulously fair, cannot make a man willing to charge a machine-gun nest in the face of almost certain death.

"It's kind of even-steven right now, but we think we can count votes better than our opponents, and we're pretty confident," said Roger Herrera, a consultant for Arctic Power, a pro-drilling lobbying group financed by the State of Alaska and oil companies.

The result, Mr. Austin predicted, will be an even-steven race in the state going into the fall campaign, with the decision in the hands of the swing voters who supported Richard Celeste for governor and Bill Clinton for president but backed Ronald Reagan for president and George V. Voinovich for senator.