"WHEN a good friend insisted a few years back on dining by herself at the French Laundry, the renowned Napa Valley restaurant, I found it hard to comprehend. Wouldn’t she miss out on the communal relishing of shared flavors, delights and memories? Of course, she said. But more important to her was the opportunity to savor each nuance with unobstructed emotions, to laugh or to weep as the mood dictated, without the sort of inhibitions companions might pose."

"Want to play it cool with someone? Seem busy and important? Then send a text—with a term of endearment—that appears to be written to someone else. Or ask 'who is this?' when you receive a text. Have a friend text you repeatedly when you're on a date. Claim not to have gotten a text you actually received. Let's call it bluffting: A text with a little bluffing."

"High-end fashion brands have a problem. Let’s call it the 'Kreayshawn quandary,' after the young Bay Area rapper made famous by the Internet and her hit song 'Gucci, Gucci,' which has gotten over 16 million views on YouTube." READ MORE

"'I enjoy stealing,' explains singer Perry Farrell in 'Been Caught Stealing,' Jane’s Addiction’s 1990 ode to shoplifting. 'It’s just as simple as that.' But unfortunately for businesses and thieves, little about shoplifting is simple."

"For the better part of 30 years, men’s shorts have been inching away from their own breviloquent description. My call for a return to a common-sense inseam has been met over time with complacency, staunch resistance and — on the occasions I’ve dared to lead by example — merciless ribbing. Just as I was beginning to lose heart, it was revealed that several designers are featuring shorter men’s shorts for spring. Revivified, I strode out into the Los Angeles sunshine to gauge whether the American public had regained its appetite for men’s bare thighs."

"With his feeble flame of 'hope' thoroughly doused here in the United States by last week's elections, President Obama has set out around the globe in search of throngs still enthralled by his flowery rhetoric. He found them, of course, in Indonesia this week by telling them about how Americans must stop mistrusting Islam. So that is why your president is halfway around the world instead of being here in the United States to celebrate the sacrifices American soldiers, sailors and airmen have made around the world to keep the real, still-burning flame of freedom alive."