And Shanta is no mere game-obsessed teeny-bopper; she's soon to be 68 years old, and her favorite dance partner, her husband John, is a youthful 70. The considerable health implications of their activities become clear when you learn the results. more »

Julia kept meticulous notes and spent months perfecting recipes for one ingredient. She made so many egg dishes that she finally wrote to Simca, "I've just poached two more eggs and throw them down the toilet." more »

armed with our new linguistic knowledge, we headed off on our own into the shops that lined Nanjing Road, a major shopping area in Shanghai. In one shop, we pointed to a fan. The clerk took it from its case to show to us. We looked it over and carefully said in our best Mandarin, "Mao, mao, hoo, hoo." The clerk's eyes widened. She backed away into the protection of the other clerks who were standing around stone-faced trying to decipher our intentions. more »

Divorce is a part in a surprising number of them, and usually the reader cannot imagine any other outcome for the situation described, but sometimes it seems an oddly self-serving decision, with little or no hope of improving the emotional lot of those involved. more »