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By STEVE BREWER
Back-to-school shopping always seems like a summertime taste of Christmas.

Such a haul: new clothes, new sneakers, new backpack, new lunchbox. Bright yellow pencils and crisp white paper.

By BARTON GOLDSMITH
Without a good education, your child's chances of having a productive life are greatly diminished. Here are some tools to make the educational experience more balanced for the children and more peaceful for the family.

1.

By THELMA DOMENICI
Dear Thelma: I have a neuromuscular disease and use a wheelchair and a service dog. I also live in a small town. No matter how many times I say it, people can't seem to understand that petting the dog and talking to him when he's in harness _ without the handler's permission _ is not "being friendly." It is a very unwelcome distraction.

It is never appropriate to interfere with an assistance animal, and most states have laws on their books regarding such interference.

By Dr. YVONNE FOURNIER
Dear Dr. Fournier:

My son is in the 10th grade. Until now, his teachers have given him study sheets or told him what to study in his book to prepare for tests. This year, two of his teachers do not do this.

By EUGENIE JONES
Beginning an exercise routine can be intimidating. Whether exercise is brand spanking new to you or if you're experienced and ready to take your routine to a more challenging level, starting something new can be a bit scary.

By LEE BOWMAN
Three new studies show that a gene that suppresses tumor-cell growth also plays a key role in the aging of various types of cells and, if manipulated, could help treat some of the diseases of aging.

The researchers found that aging cells hold increasing concentrations of a gene called p16INK4a, and that the greater the expression of the gene, the poorer the function of the cells compared to young cells.

By LEE BOWMAN
The small things in health can add up to big things _ big bad things, like the incremental damage of coronary artery disease, or big good things that can save a life or at least improve the odds for recovery.

Here are just a few of the incremental things that are reported in medical journals and government regulatory filings every day that illustrate why it's worth it to sweat the small stuff.

_ Oxygen cold; oxygen warm.

Most everyone's had a brain freeze after trying to inhale too much ice cream or snow cone at once.

By MIKE HARDEN
Don't bother telling Keith Davis about the Wendy's Classic Triple or the Hardee's Monster Thickburger (large Crispy Curls and extra gravy, please).

He already knows.

"We are supersizing ourselves right into Goliath Caskets," Davis said, speaking from the offices of the casket business in Lynn, Ind., that his father, Forest "Pee Wee" Davis, launched in a converted hog barn in 1985.

Pee Wee hung up his welder's mask, after 30 years with Spartan Casket, and walked out of the factory telling his co-workers, "Boys, I'm gonna go home and build oversize caskets that you would be proud to put your mother in."

Son Keith recalls, "He sat down at the kitchen table and designed an oversize casket that would have dignity and that looked like a traditional casket instead of a piano crate."

Pee Wee was a man ahead of his time, but not by much.

"It is a commentary on our society," said Dwayne R.

By TERRY MATTINGLY
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Seconds after American Airlines Flight 11 passed overhead, another Franciscan brother ran to Father Mychal Judge's room in the friary to let him know the World Trade Center was on fire.

The veteran chaplain quickly changed out of his simple brown habit and into his fire-department uniform _ pausing only to comb and spray his hair.

By JEWEL KATS and DAVE SILVERBERG
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Hi Dave,

My girlfriend and I plan to get married next summer. I want a small wedding, or, even better, to travel somewhere and get married with no one around.

She wants a huge production.