John Manley's suffering was a mystery.

For more than a year, the Wilmington, N.C. home remodeler, 50, was wracked with coughing spells. He had no energy. He battled frequent bouts of pneumonia.

His wife bought him two dogs because she hoped the animals might cheer him up and compel him to get out of the house.

The early arrival of seasonal flu vaccines -- to pave the way for the October release of the new H1N1 vaccine -- comes just in time for the fall checkups that are part of the health routine of children with asthma.

The coach of a football team favored by 28 points actually said Wednesday, with unwavering conviction, about his upcoming game: "Everybody knows this will be a four-quarter dogfight."

2010 KIA FORTE SX

TYPE: Front-drive, five-passenger, compact sedan.

PRICE: $17,195 base, $19,490 as tested.

WHERE BUILT: Hwasung, South Korea.

KEY RIVALS: Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Chevrolet Cobalt, Ford Focus.

POWER: 2.4-liter, DOHC, 16-valve, 173-horsepower, 4-cylinder engine; six-speed manual transmission.

It had begun to look like the worst of the recession was over, but here comes Barack Obama with a Herbert Hoover trick, a tariff increase that could help ignite a widespread trade war, cost us jobs, increase some prices, defeat recovery and keep us in economic misery for a long, long time.

"Work doesn't become art until some rich person comes along and buys it. Then it's art."

If only Serena Williams were a NASCAR driver.

I mean, imagine how it would have been received if after a controversial NASCAR ruling, say another bogus debris caution, a driver said over the radio "You tell that NASCAR official that if I can even find that (expletive) piece of debris, I will shove it up their (expletive) and then I'm going to (expletive) kill them."