At the simplest level, only people who know they do not know everything will be curious enough to find things out.

Medicare is immune from the competitive pressures that force private insurers to pay attention to what patients and doctors want.

Glamour is translucent — not transparent, not opaque. It invites us into the world but it doesn’t give us a completely clear picture.

Glamour is all about transcending this world and getting to an idealized, perfect place.

The SAT is not perfect. We all know smart, knowledgeable people who do badly on standardized tests. But neither is it useless. SAT scores do measure both specific knowledge and valuable thinking skills.

European nations began World War I with a glamorous vision of war, only to be psychologically shattered by the realities of the trenches. The experience changed the way people referred to the glamour of battle; they treated it no longer as a positive quality but as a dangerous illusion.

The impulse for personal adornment is hard to stamp out.