Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The title of the song refers to Douglas Coupland's novel, Shampoo Planet, wherein the main character, Tyler Johnson, says: "I am writing a list of tragic character flaws on my dollar bills with a felt pen. I am thinking of the people in my universe and distilling for each of these people the one flaw in their character that will be their downfall--the flaw that will be their undoing. ...What I write are not sins; I write tragedies."