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for Train Riders, Middle seat Isn't The Center Of Attention
by Patrick McGeehan, New York Times
Because commuters would rather stand than occupy a middle seat, transit systems are reworking trains' seating arrangements.

Watching New Love As It Sears The Brain
by Benedict Carey, New York Times
Now for the first time, neuroscientists have produced brain scan images of new love.

Pitfalls For Parents
by Kit R. Roane, U.S. News
International adoption has become big business, but regulation still lags.

Face To Face With Death
by Vanessa Juarez, Newsweek
The funeral industry is opening up to newcomers who want to comfort families in mourning.

In Defense Of Certainty
by Charles Krauthammer, Time
It's trendy to be suspicious of people with "deeply held views." And it's wrong.

The Hill Still Resonate
by Todd S. Purdum, New York Times
In hindsight, a compelling case can be made for "The Sound of Music," as the last picture show of its kind, a triumph of craftsmanship and the apogee of the studio system that produced the kind of entertainment that dominated mid-20th-century mass culture.

Mama Warned Us About Fast Food And Fast Women
by Paul Farhi, Washington Post
Everything had to come together for such a button-pushing masterpiece to succeed.

How Do You Cure A Broken Heart?
by April Witt, Washington Post
When Karen Schillings learned that her daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law had died in a freak boat accident, her strong heart threatened to stop beating. Fortunately for her, doctors from Johns Hopkins knew just what to do.

Baby Steps
by Darshak Sanghavi, Boston Globe
Medical breakthroughs don't happen overnight. They come only after a few pioneering patients go first, sometimes at great risk. When Brian and Jennifer Deffaa learned their baby would be born with a damaged heart, they had a choice: accept the standard but imperfect fix or let doctors try a radical, unproven procedure. This is the story of one family's agonizing decision and the human cost of medical progress.

How Did House Bands Become A Filipino Export?
by John Bowe, New York Times
A story of pop, minicry, globalization and one extremely ambitious manager.

A Mothers' War
by Cynthia Gorney, New York Times
Mothers nationwide who have children fighting in Iraq are connected by Tracy Della vecchia, who runs a web site for them — a clearinghouse of pride and fear and anger and grief.

The Choirboy
by John Heilemann, New York
As head boy at a legendary choir school, Lawrence Lessig was repeatedly molested by the charismatic choir director, part of a horrific pattern of child abuse there. Now, as one of America's most famous lawyers, he's put his own past on trial to make sure such a thing never happens again.

When Toddlers Get Fired
by Neal Pollack, Salon
My 2-year-old son was booted out of his preschool for biting — and now my wife and I are facing a summer of hell.

A Crescent Of Water Is Slowing Sinking Into The Desert
by Jim yardley, New York Times
In this desert oasis where East once met West and that is home to one of the world's greatest shrines to Buddhism, the water is dissapearing.

James Dean: What Would He Have Grown Up To Be?
by John Swansburg, Slate
Morbidity has always been at the heart of the James Dean cult.

Salon's Balancing Act
by Adam L. Penenberg, Wired News
By combining subscriptions with rich advertising, the opinionated news site finds a way to cut through the clutter of online ads,and is even closing in on profitability.

Loud, Proud, Unabridged: It Is Too Reading!
by Amy Harmon, New York Times
Fewer Americans are reading books than a decade ago, but almost a third more are listening to them on tapes, CD's and iPods.

It's All In How The Dog Is Served
by Ed Levine, New York Times
So what constitutes a great hot dog?

China, New Land Of Shoppers, Builds Malls On Gigantic Scale
by David Barboza, New York Times
Chinese have started to embrace America's modern "shop till you drop" ethos and are int he midst of a buy-at-the-mall frenzy.

Anti-Doctor And Anti-Death. What's A Guy To Do?
by Dennis Overbye, New York Times
I'd like to say I am braver now, but the simple fact is that when push comes to shove I am more afraid of death than of the doctor. So I'll do what they say.

The Future Of Television
by Conan O'Brien, Newsweek
Screens so small they fit inside coffee cups. Marriages arranged by TiVo. Production facilities on Mars.

Blood Feud
by Mary Battiata, Washington Post
Robert Frost said good fences make good neighbors. He never knew John Ames and Perry Brooks.

Starbucks Aims To Alter China's Taste In Caffeine
by Keith Bradsher, New York Times
What is striking about these efforts, by McDonald's and KFC as well as Starbucks, is that they have made few concessions to Chinese tastes, instead cultivating in China an appetite for Western favorites, like Big Macs and grande lattes.

Critical Condition
by Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times
Once almighty arbiters of American taste, critics find their power at ebb tide. Is it a dark time for the arts, or the dawn of a new age?

Office Culture
by Gillian Tett, Financial Times
Practitioners of social anthropology have traditionally flocked to exotic spots: examining the sexual mores of Polynesian islanders; studying disappearing tribal cultures in the Amazon jungle; wandering with Nuer herders in Sudan. But in the past few years, some have headed off to places such as accountancy firms and technology companies.

What Makes Sherlock Holmes The Supersleuth?
by Charles McGrath, New York Times
Sherlock Holmes has enjoyed what must surely be the most extensive afterlife of any character in fiction.

The Butchers Are Back
by Charles Perry, Los Angeles Times
In a city that's hungry for premium cuts, old-fashioned, full-service meat counters are ready to take your order.

At The Chelsea Hotel, Married, With Kids
by Elaine Louie, New York Times
The Chelsea Hotel may be a good place to meet artists and eccentrics, but it is hardly viewed as a family setting. Yet Sally Singer, the fashion news editor at Vogue magazine, and her husband, Joseph O'Neill, an Irish novelist and lawyer, are raising their three sons in an eighth-floor suite that deftly mixes glamour and domesticity.

When Death Means The Loss Of An Archive
by Daniel J. Wakin, New York Times
Joe Nash's vash archive on black dance in America made him a leading figure in the dance world. It also may have helped kill him.

The Top 50 Things Every Foodie Should Do
by Nigel Slater, The Observer
So much to eat, so little time. But there are some things we simply must make time for, if not immediately, certainly before we leave this earth. But what is really worth doing, and what can be happily left on the side of the plate?

To Infinity And Beyond
by Joel Achenbach, Washington Post
Can a band of true believers blast America's manned space program out of low Earth orbit into a stellar future?

Let The Music Play
by James Sullivan, Boston Globe
Tracy Chapman, Shawn Colvin, Joan Baez. They all performed here. Street musicians can turn a drab city block into an impromptu concert. After 100 years of being badgered or silenced by an uptight city, they are finally free to play. So why aren't they celebrating?

Russian Icons
by Nicolai Ouroussoff, New York Times
Soviet architecture of the 20th century began with utopias and ended with kitsch. Soon the best of it may be gone altogether.

A Really Big Idea
by Bret Begun, Newsweek
Burger King's CEO has turned around the chain with a radical notion: give people what they want.

Scott Adams, Drawing The Line
by Samatha Sordyl, Washington Post
Dilbert's creator can't always make his hand follow directions. But he's found a work-around.

Remember: You Can't Swat A Fly With A Computer
by Michael Kinsley, Los Angeles Times
Some evil force is causing people to stop reading newspapers.

Celebrating The U.S.S.R. In Song, Uncle Joe And All
by Erin E. Arvedlund, New York Times
Oleg M. Gazmanov makes no apologies for putting the leading figures of Russian history, artists and mass murderers alike, on an equal plane.

M Is For The Many Meals She Made
by DeNeen L. Brown, Washington Post
My grandmother, stil serving her Sunday best.

Do Parents Matter?
by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, USA Today
The most interesting conclusion is one that many modern parents may find disturbing: Parenting technique is highly overrated. When it comes to early test scores, it's not so much what you do as a parent, it's who you are.

Forget The Specials, Explain The Restroom
by Frank Bruni, New York Times
I couldn't figure out why, in restaurant after restaurant, the attempt to relieve oneself turned out to be anything but a relief.

The Woodpecker In All Of Us
by Jonathan Rosen, New York Times
Among its gifts to us, the ivory bill can help us see ourselves as we really are, torn between our own desire to be free — to shoot and develop and cut down and expand — and the desire to live among free things that can survive only if we are less free.

When Did We Get "Cold Feet"?
by Daniel Engber, Slate
The Germans had 'em first!

Dwarfs, Little People And The M-Word
by Roger Ebert and Danny Woodburn, Chicago Sun-Times
Words that cause pain should be retired.

Ugly Children May Get Parental Short Shrift
by Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times
Parents would certainly deny it, but Canadian researchers have made a startling assertion: parents take better care of pretty children than they do ugly ones.

Vaudeville's Brief, Shining Moment
by Stefan Kanfer, City Journal
It was the most democratic popular art in American history. To get onstage, all you needed was chutzpah and moxie. If you had the right stuff, you picked up the dance steps, the vocak style, the comic timing that coud make you a star — maybe even one of the Marx Brothers.

Display It, Don't Spray It
by Chandler Burr, New York Times
Japan is the world's second-largest market for cosmetics but one of the smallest for perfume; what is more, on fundamental cultural level, the Japanese have been known to go out of their way to avoid the stuff.