lifestyle

My kids cured me of texting while driving.

If you really are serious about breaking that dangerous habit when your cell phone gives off its irresistible buzz, put a bounty on your head.

It is a myth that most suicides occur during the winter holidays. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, more suicides occur in late July and August.

I'm pretty sure I have a bigger clue now about America's, well, "growing" weight problem.

Let's review. I was thrilled when my kids were at their Kanakuk Kamp in Branson, Mo., recently. For starters, I could turn what I consider the three-meals-a-day drudgery over to someone else.

Four teen-age boys ride in the back of a sport utility vehicle talking about video games, bragging about sports and laughing about bodily functions that really can't be detailed in this family newspaper.

The lick-on label was unmistakable. Paul Campfield was reading his mother's name and the address of his childhood home in San Lorenzo, Calif.

And it meant the old records he picked up for $2 at a Sutter Creek antique shop had once belonged to her, although she died in Redding in 1979.

What are the chances?

Q: My parents are close with a couple who have four daughters. They're all invited to the wedding, but I'm having a small shower. Can I only invite the daughter I'm closest to?

For most of her life, my wife believed that your skill as a cook depended entirely on the quality of your mother's recipe book.

Aargh. You're out of cash, you're awash in heavily margined stocks that are plummeting and war just broke out in the Middle East.

Having fun yet?

Clearwater, Fla., orthopedic surgeon/game enthusiast John Barrett is counting on it, having invested $50,000 of materials and staff time into creating and marketing his Play the Stock Market board game.

The winter-weather seer who calls himself a "tree-ologist and a doctor of backyard science" winces in pain.

"It's my legs," drawls 82-year-old Dick Frymire. "The doctor says they're both pretty much dead. It was that daggone Second World War when I got hurt in Okinawa.

Seventeen-year-old Zac Sunderland completed his 13-month journey to become the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe on July 16. He made the voyage in a 36-foot boat, Intrepid, which he paid $6,000 for himself by working.