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How Movie Taglines Are Born
by Jon Mooallem, Boston Globe
2003 was an off year for copy lines, those punchy epigrams printed above or below the film's title in posters and ads.

Accidents Happen
by Steve Rubenstein, San Francisco Chronicle
On how reporting can get personal.

Joining The Debate But Missing The Point
by Nathaniel Frank, New York Times
For a productive dialogue, we should be asking the question this way: is giving gays the right to marry good for society?

The Joy Of Gay Marriage
by Frank Rich, New York Times
The San Francisco weddings mark a new high-water mark in one of the most fast-paced cultural tsunamis America has seen.

Are Malls Democratic?
by Paco Underhill, Boston Globe
Shopping centers may resemble town squares, but civil rights and commercial interests don't always mix — and freedom is often the loser.

Say No More
by Jack Hitt, New York Times
Languages die the way many people do — at home, in silence, attended by loved ones straining to make idle conversation.

Every Trip Is A Picnic
by Joanne Kaufman, New York Times
Let others fret about whether they've packed film for the camera or a spare battery for the computer; the cab is waiting, and I'm wondering whether I've packed the corn muffins and the lemons for my ice tea.

The Passion Of The Christ
by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
It is a film about an idea. An idea that it is necessary to fully comprehend the Passion if Christianity is to make any sense.

Have It Your Way
by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Time
Cook-it-yourself restaurants are booming, as heartland diners discover it's fun to play with food.

Wrap It Up, We'll Take It
by David L. Harris, Boston Globe
Dinner now comes in paper bags, in plastic wrap and containers, and in anything else that will get it to your supper table without spills. Who has time to cook?

Why Is It Called The Passion?
by Sam Schechner, Slate
How Jesus' suffering got its name.

What's It Take To Get A Waiter In This City?
by Florence Fabricant, New York Times
A rush of big-ticket restaurant openings, from over the treetops at the Time Warner Center to down in TriBeCa, has put more pressure than ever on chefs and owners to find qualified people to chop, saute, serve, clear, pour and manage the dining rooms.

Happy Marriage Between Eggs And Greens
by Matt Lee And Ted Lee, New York Times
"My father would drive five hours for the right pancetta, the right pecorino. This dish takes five minutes."

Select All
by Christopher Caldwell, New Yorker
Can you have too many choices?

Nailed
by David Denby, New Yorker
The despair of the movie is hard to shrug off, and Gibson's timing couldn't be more unfortunate: another dose of death-haunted religious fanaticism is the last thing we need.

'Sex' And The Mythic Movie Dream Of New York City
by James Sanders, New York Times
"Sex and the City," perhaps more than any film or television project of recent decades, has succeeded in re-establishing the vision of a glamorous, mythic New York that had been a fixture in the popular imagination for much of the 20th century: a sophisticated wonderland, replete with nightclubs and cocktails, spacious terraces and skyline views, elegant shopping streets and sidewalks filled with stylish women.

No Kids, Please
by Carlene Hempel, Boston Globe
They don't want to have children, they don't want to be bothered by children, and they'd just as soon not live near children. It's the child-free movement, and it's growing.

Life In The Age Of Old, Old Age
by Susan Dominus, New York Times
Bill is 73, but his dad won't let him retire. Charlotte is 97, and her big sister still wants to tell her what to do. Natalie has been trying to please her mother since the Hoover administration.

What Did Jesus Really Look Like?
by David Gibson, New York Times
From Eastern Orthodox icons to Hollywood movie hunks like Jim Caviezel in "The Passion of Christ," depictions of Jesus have always served the needs of the day.

Love Notes And Ghosts On A Lonely Road
by Chris Dixon, New York Times
Highway 50, a transcontinental road containing many extraordinary stops, is nearly forgotten in the ear of the interstate.

Catching A Good Buzz
by Noel Holston, Newsday
What is thing thing called "buzz"?

Would Shakespeare Get Into Swarthmore?
by John Katzman, Andy Lutz and Erik Olson, The Atlantic
How several well-known writers (and the Unabomber) would fare on the new SAT.

The Joy Of Cooking And Baking, Really
by Nigella Lawson, New York Times
What I had not realized — and bakers keep this a secret for obvious reasons — is how easy baking is.

Listen To This
by Alex Ross, New Yorker
A classical kid learns to love pop — and wonders why he has to make a choice.

The Adjective — So Ludic, So Minatory, So Twee
by Ben Yagoda, Chronicle Of Higher Education
As far as not getting respect goes, adjectives leave Rodney Dangerfield in the dust.

The Accidental Literary Star
by Mel Gussow, New York Times
Anne Tyler is that rare writer who has literary stature and a wide public, and she has earned that position without self-promotion.

The Failing Light
by Paula Span, Washington Post
Why did a rising young poet plunge into despair, taking her own life and the life of her 2-year-old son?

When Love Is On The Menu
by Alison Arnett, Boston Globe
Working together has always been a starting point for romance, and the restaurant industry is full of couples running establishments together, mostly the husband in the kitchen and the wife greeting customers. In the last decade, as more women have trained professionally and begun their own businesses, the dynamic has shifted.

The New Golden Age Of Acting
by A. O. Scott, New York Times
In 2003, Mr. Penn and Ms. Theron provided the most striking — you might say the most dramatic — evidence that we are living in an extraordinary period, one we will eventually look back up on as a golden age of screen acting.

The Cups Runneth Over
by Jessica Seigel, New York Times
Want to know Victoria's Secret? Push-up bras don't work.

Classical Music Is Not Just For Nerds
by Rupert Christiansen, Telegraph
Those seeking to promote classical music with the young should stick to grandeur and complexity.

Route 3
by Ian Frazier, New Yorker
What I saw on the road through New Jersey.

Good Stuff Was Ugly, But The Bad Stuff Was Great
by Aidin vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle
The best part about the 46th Grammy awards was when they gave Celine Dion a broken microphone.

Loking For Mr. Goodbyte
by Laura Boswell, Washington Post
An ingenue ventures onto the World Wide Web to find the man of her dreams and discovers just how sticky things can get.

A Loss For Words
by John Powers, Boston Globe
Americans may mean what they say, but they can't always summon the language to say what they mean.

The End Of Happy Endings?
by Pico Iver, New York Times
When the believer, in any faith, tells us that the reward for bloody sacrifice is eternal joy, the nonbeliever is often tempted to think that the believer is merely trying to justify the ways of God to man. On earth at least, the end of life is death.

The Reporter They Left Behind
by Mariane Peral, Salon
Two years after my husband, Danny Pearl, was kidnapped and murdered, his employers at the Wall Street Journal seem all too willing to forget.

They Came, They Sang, They Conquered
by Allan Kozinn, New York Times
From the distance of 40 years it seems almost silly, but on Sunday, Feb. 9, 1964, at 8 p.m., nearly 74 million Americans — just under half the country, according to the Nielsen ratings — plopped in front of their television sets to watch four English rock 'n' rollers in their early 20's introduce themselves to the country by playing five songs on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on CBS.

The Campaign Against 'Like'
by Andrea Petersen, Wall Street Journal
As ex-Valley Girls (and Boys) move up the ladder, pressure grows to sound professional.

A Challenge To Shoppers: Rise To The Occasion
by Glenn Collins, New York Times
But will they go up? Only the customers themselves can answer this crucial retailing question: whether shoppers will ascend the Time Warner Center's four-story atrium, bursting with shops large and small, when it makes its public debut tomorrow.

From Programming To Delivering Pizza
by Katharine Mieszkowski, Salon
Sure, there are jobs to be found in the so-called economic recovery. You want extra cheese with that, sir?

Cruising All The Way To The Buffet
by Dave Barry, Miami Herald
And so a few weeks ago, we set out on a sea voyage from Fort Lauderdale, knowing that it would be five days, and roughly 153 meals (included), before we would reach our destination: Fort Lauderdale.

A Potpourri Of Pooches
by Peter Tyson, PBS
How is it that the dog, alone among Earth's species, comes in so many shapes and sizes?

And You Think This Is Cold
by Peter Edidin, New York Times
Here are a few examples of life far, far below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.