Lifestyle

By CHRIS CAMPBELL
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
One thing has always been true about Nintendo: It offers a stark contrast to the big-budget muscle cars of Microsoft and Sony, and chooses instead to be the risk-taker and innovator in gaming, for better or worse.

In the global landscape of gaming, the trend is leaning to the Asian-influenced style of videogames, where quick entertainment and interactivity reign supreme.

Nintendo's Wii captures this in a console format.

By THELMA DOMENICI
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Dear Readers: As the holidays approach, I begin thinking about opportunities for celebration. For me, hosting a dinner party is a happy responsibility.

By STEVE BREWER
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Of all the things I find annoying _ and, boy, there's a list that just keeps getting longer _ laugh tracks are near the top.

I've all but given up watching TV situation comedies because of the canned laughter that erupts every time a character so much as exhales.

By NZONG XIONG
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Now that Halloween is over, throw away the jack-o'-lanterns, but don't toss out the pumpkins you haven't touched. Instead, keep them around longer _ through Thanksgiving _ as part of your fall decor.

"I think people think of pumpkins just for Halloween, but those are jack-o'-lanterns," says Kimberly Woertendyke-Alvarez, a floral designer at A Secret Garden in Clovis, Calif.

By BARTON GOLDSMITH
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Mark Twain said: "Love seems the swiftest, but is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century."

Twain may have experienced the common occurrence of once being very angry at his partner _ so angry that he and his partner both must have thought a breakup was inevitable, and yet they stayed together, only to realize that whatever the argument was about, it had been forgotten over the years.

The gift of time gives us the ability to make up for almost any error, whether it is callous or contrived.

By Dr. YVONNE FOURNIER
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Dear Dr. Fournier:

My company is sending my co-workers and me on a wilderness retreat to help each other literally jump hurdles, climb mountains and do all kinds of things.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The 411 is a weekly column of what's hot and what's not, compiled by youth correspondents for Young People's Press, the North American youth news service:

SITE FOR GUITARISTS

Imagine how impressed your friends will be when you take out the guitar and play the latest chart-topper note for note.

By LEE BOWMAN
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
If you're among the masses hitting the highways or boarding ramps for the holidays, there are some health matters, new and old, to consider.

Along with those tubes of liquids and gels, some air travelers may find they've got security issues that they just can't check in baggage or leave home.

A growing number of airport checkpoints have sensors for radiation.

By LEE BOWMAN
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
If you're among the masses hitting the highways or boarding ramps for the holidays, there are some health matters, new and old, to consider.

Along with those tubes of liquids and gels, some air travelers may find they've got security issues that they just can't check in baggage or leave home.

A growing number of airport checkpoints have sensors for radiation.

By TERRY MATTINGLY
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
It's the kind of devil's advocate question that Roman Catholic priests discuss when no one else is listening.

How short do you have to make a Mass to appeal to parishioners who don't want to get out of bed to go to Sunday Mass in the first place? Would more people attend if Mass was 40 minutes instead of 50?

"There are priests who can do a weekday Mass in about 22 minutes and the people know that father has left his car running out back and his golf clubs are in the trunk," said Father John A.