An Internet meme going around is about five guys who took the same photo for 30 years . These were friends who would vacation together at Copco Lake. What started as a lark turned into a regular tradition: the group of people, the poses and facial expressions stayed constant. Reading that story prompted me to...

"Without habit, the beauty of the world would overwhelm us. We'd pass out every time we saw -- actually saw -- a flower. Imagine if we only got to see a cumulonimbus cloud or Cassiopeia or a snowfall once a century; there'd be pandemonium in the streets. People would lie by the thousands in the...

You can leave a place, but it doesn't leave you. Quickly, at least. Maybe you'll bring back a few jolly pounds from samosas and sweetshops. You'll have some of the country under your fingernails and clogged in your pores. Its exhaust will take a few days to clear from your lungs so your boogers might...