Do this test tonight when you go to bed. Put a plate on the floor next to your bed. Lie down with o...
Who's Got the Button?
How do you make your choices when shopping for clothes? Are you lured by certain colors or patterns? Do some brands have the power to make you reach for your credit card? Or are you an inveterate bargain hunter who can't resist the chance to save 40 percent, even if it's something y...
Ten Grand
Ten thousand dollars just isn’t what it used to be. Twenty years ago, it could have bought you a new car. Fifty years ago, it could have bought you a house. Nowadays, it might get you a nice ten days in Hawaii for two or a remodelled kitchen. Still, the prospect of an extra ten gran...
Oodles of Doodles
Schoolchildren understand that page margins were made for doodling. It's almost sinful to let all the empty white space in a notebook go to waste. Scribbles, squiggles, googly-eyed faces, and hearts with arrows quickly grow and multiply, crowding into the writing space mid page. Giv...
Look Out Below
Keeping plants offers us the chance to give without any promise of reciprocation, gratitude, or reward. It's true that they ask for little - just some water and sunlight - but in a material sense they give even less in return. Nonetheless, houseplants enjoy a popularity that seems o...
Returns Policy
You have decided to admit your true feelings to a person you have loved from a distance for what seems like ages. You brought a small gift to help show your sincerity and the depth of your love, but when you finally take that leap and offer yourself, that person says, “I am sorry, b...
The Wheel of Fortune
Casinos make their business to have something for everyone. If you can't stand blackjack, you might just love the slot machines. If the slots do nothing for you, you can take in a floor show. If the show is no good, you can always enjoy a cocktail on the house and just soak in the c...
Trauma Central
Imagine yourself in the waiting room of the emergency center at a large hospital. As you wait, you begin to look at the faces of the people around you and recognize several acquaintances of yours among the patients. Match a person in your life with each of the following trauma ...
The Book of Life
There’s a book out there you have been searching for, but even you yourself don’t know what it is. No subject, title, or author. No Dewey decimal or ISBN. Just a sense of certainty that when you find it, things will fall into place, and one of your life’s great purposes will be fulf...
Simulacrummy
Imagine you're a scientist working on an experimental process to clone human beings. You have finally succeeded in cloning yourself, and using growth-acceleration technologies (patent pending), you are now the proud creator of an exact replica of your body, right down to the fingerp...
At the Water's Edge
The winding river is both a source and a symbol of life. Rivers provide fresh water, transportation, and places to bathe, swim, fish, and relax outdoors, and as a result people have chosen to build their homes near rivers from time immemorial. Of course, there is always the danger o...
Just the right fit
An alien entity or maleficent elf sneaks into your closet and drawers at night and, while you slumber, shrinks each article of your clothing by the slightest imperceptible amount. Only after weeks of these nightly visitations do you begin to notice the insidious effects. Pants that ...
Music Box
Music boxes are designed for the sole purpose of making people feel good. They call us back to simpler times, lull us to sleep with their delicate tunes, even make us feel young again. All it takes is a few turns of the key. But behind that simple purpose lies a complex mechanism of...
Winning Isn't Everything
Team sports generate as much passion in the stands as they do on the field, and the excitement surrounding a football championship. World Cup soccer match, or final-round basketball playoff is intense enough to send waves of energy around the world. In fact, it's often the case that...
A Day to Remember
The flowers you wore to the prom are faded and brittle, an uncomfortable number of the faces in the yearbook look unfamiliar, and most of the things you learned in trigonometry seemed to vanish from your memory the instant you handed in the final to be graded. But some memories from...
Sweets for the Sweet
Imagine you are lost in a dark forest and you come across a cottage made of sweets. After checking the area to make sure no witches are lurking about, you get ready to dig in. How do you set about consuming the house? I’d just start eating everything in sight I’d ...
When the party’s over
You drew the short straw and ended up with the unenviable task of being designated driver for the night. You resign yourself to a long night of club soda and cocktail nuts and manage to make it all the way to the agreed-upon twelve o'clock final round. But your jolly companions have...
Happy Landings
Imagine you are jumping out of a plane (Come on! It is just imagining). You are floating and half way down and you see the canopy of your parachute flying above you. What do you imagine below you? A field of grass and a pasture filled with flowers A rocky landscape ...
Make A Wish
You can't have everything. That may seem like a statement of the obvious, but it's surprising how many people seem to forget the fact when you're making their decisions. Something in human nature refuses to accept that universal rule. We want to believe we can have it all, if only b...
If the shoe fits
For many, finding the right pair of shoes is more than just a reason to go shopping. It is an obsession. Furthermore, the shoes are very important. It is an object that gives confidence to the mode and putting the finishing touches in all the appearance. No clothes that look good wi...
Your name here
The world is full of other people, and their number grows day by day. For most of us, our social worlds also expand a little each day. Most of our contacts with others are random, chance encounters with people we may never meet a second time. But sometimes fate has other plans, and ...
Skimming the surface
We humans excel at many things. However, floating isn't one of them. Sure, with a little practice and a lot of effort we might manage to keep our heads above water for a few laps in the swimming pool, but none of us would fare very well if dropped in the middle of the ocean without ...
Where the Sky meets the Sea
There are breathtaking mountain vistas, sweeping metropolitan skylines, rugged tracts of forest that stretch as far as the eye can see, and gentle country landscapes dotted with fields and farms, but of all the scenic views in the world, none can stir the imagination and calm the so...
