Every day each of us wakes up, reaches into drawers and closets, pulls out a costume for the day and proceeds to dress in a style that can only be called preposterous.

Be nice to your siblings. They are your link to the past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Families are ecosystems. Each life grows in response to the lives around it

You can figure out who you were by which movies you loved when

The soul-sucking activity of TV-watching feels better when it is done with other souls.