NYT Magazine

"Santiago Calatrava, a Spanish genius of Parnassian accomplishments, has redesigned a sports complex that now embodies the tensile strength of athletes in their glory." [image]

"Will gobsmacked be a nonce word, passing through the language, soon to be forgotten? Or will it overcome the explosive blown away, which has long since overwhelmed flabbergasted, which describes the aghast state of a fat person?"

"The problem with a drug that makes us be good (not just feel good, like more traditional drugs) is that being good, when it comes naturally, isn't that big an achievement, morally speaking."

Build-a-Bear: that's an idea!

The Ethicist
Im the owner of a small business and am often required to take customers to lunch. As an ethical vegetarian, however, I am troubled by having to pay for and hence subsidize the slaughtering of an animal. Is there a way to suggest to customers to order vegetarian? (There are no all-vegetarian restaurants in the area.) Tom Meinhardt, Cincinnati.

You make a reasonable point.

On similar grounds, I never take my clients out to throw bricks through the windows of the town orphanage. (Mostly because I have no clients, or bricks, or town -- but still.)