I Grew Up In A Suburb Of

Credit Or Debit Cards, For Starters, Are Nothing Short Of Shoppers' Novocain. Even In The Age Of Digital Purchases And Virtual Money, We Still Attach A Special Value To Dirty Paper With Pictures Of Presidents On It. Handing Some Of That To A Cashier Simply Hurts More Than Handing Over A Little Sliver Of Plastic.

Operating-room Errors Hold A Special Terror For Patients, If Only Because They Seem Like The Most Avoidable Kind Of Complications. The Occasional Horror Stories Of Patients Who Have The Wrong Leg Removed Or The Wrong Knee Replaced Generate The Most Headlines, As Do Tales Of Patients Whose Identities Are Mixed Up Entirely.

It's Far Too Much To Say That Effective Hoping Is The Only - Or Even The Biggest - Part Of What It Takes To Succeed. If 14% Of Business Productivity Can Be Attributed To Hope, That Means 86% Is Dependent On Raw Talent, Fickle Business Cycles, The Quality Of The Product You're Selling, And Often Pure, Dumb Luck.

There's No One Place A Virus Goes To Die - But That Doesn't Make Its Demise Any Less A Public Health Victory. Throughout Human History, Viral Diseases Have Had Their Way With Us, And For Just As Long, We Have Hunted Them Down And Done Our Best To Wipe Them Out.

No One Ever Pretended That Shopping For Anything Is A Rational Experience. If It Were, Would There Be Fluffernutter? Laceless Sneakers? Porkpie Hats? Would The Chia Pet Even Exist?