Happiness puts on as many shapes as discontent, and there is nothing odder than the satisfaction of one's neighbor.

Meek-eyed parents hasten down the ramps To greet their offspring, terrible from camps.

Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy, Happy New Year everybody.

Women like other women fine. The more feminine she is, the more comfortable a woman feels with her own sex. It is only the occasional and therefore noticeable adventuress who refuses to make friends with us.

Kindness is a virtue neither modern nor urban. One almost unlearns it in a city. Towns have their own beatitude; they are not unfriendly; they offer a vast and solacing anonymity or an equally vast and solacing gregariousness. But one needs a neighbor on whom to practice compassion.

Rain is my lover, my apple strudel. / It haunts my heels like a pedigreed poodle. / Beyond the seas or across the nation, / It follows me faithful on every vacation.

Behind every myth lies a truth; beyond every legend is reality, as radiant (sometimes as chilling) as the story itself.