When he began teaching at Cornell University, the Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov said he knew just two things: One, life is beautiful, and two, life is sad. The reason life is sad, he said, is because it's going to end. Yet death, our most unwelcome visitor, can...

If you've been to the dentist, you know how it is -- these jokers want to X-ray you every time you open your mouth. Checkup? ZAP! Toothache? ZAP! New dentist? ZAP! They'll even try to zap you if they get new office equipment. Zap, zap, zap, zap -- each time your...