In the past, when a father had something to say to his son—Today you are 6. Happy Birthday, for instance—he would enlist the help of a trained card-writing professional, because it was not deemed prudent for a man to address a child directly until that boy had reached adulthood and developed his own fully formed opinions. (Daughters were addressed on their wedding day; a solemn "Goodbye, young lady.")

Katie Nelson was eating lunch at a restaurant in Portland, Maine last Friday when she saw a car zoom down the street and over the edge of Portland Harbor.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is on a whirlwind book tour promoting his debut novel, A Journey. Today he was in Dublin, Ireland and was greeted by flying shoes, flip-flops, eggs, and protesters chanting "blood on his hands."

Hallmark writers are staying off welfare this Christmas by writing cards bearing recession-ized slogans like "This wasn't the year that any of us had hoped for." GEE THANKS. I think we can do better than that.