In general, life is better than it has ever been, and if you think that, in the past, there was some golden age of pleasure and plenty to which you would, if you were able, transport yourself, let me say one single word : Dentistry.

It is very hard now to shock people into thinking about government regulation and the extent of government involvement in life.

Even very young children need to be informed about dying. Explain the concept of death very carefully to your child. This will make threatening him with it much more effective.

You can learn all about the human condition from covering the crime beat in a big city - you don't need to go to Beirut for that - but a foreign correspondent begins to understand poverty from a different perspective.

Don't send funny greeting cards on birthdays or at Christmas. Save them for funerals when their cheery effect is needed.

I was managing editor for a while [in National Lampoon ], and it does cause business problems when your circulation goes up.

Taxi drivers all over the world, by the way, are under Newspaper Guild contract to give easy quotes to foreign correspondents.