When you're the only pea in the pod, your parents are likely to get you confused with the Hope diamond.

New York is the only city in the world where you can get run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian.

Now scarcely a week goes by without a news story about the cops swooping down on some adolescent prowler who is as skilled at breaking into computer systems as defense contractors are at breaking into the Federal budget.

Schoolteachers seemed determined to persuade me that 'classic' is a synonym for 'narcotic'.

Scientists have been struck by the fact that things that break down virtually never get lost, while things that get lost hardly ever break down.

Unpleasant questions are being raised about Mother's Day. Is this day necessary? . . . Isn't it bad public policy? . . . No politician with half his senses, which a majority of politicians have, is likely to vote for its abolition, however. As a class, mothers are tender and loving, but as a voting bloc they would not hesitate for an instant to pull the seat out from under any Congressman who suggests that Mother is not entitled to a box of chocolates each year in the middle of May.

Life is always walking up to us and saying, "Come on in, the living's fine," and what do we do? Back off and take its picture.