"Humans have a fraught relationship with beasts. They are our companions and our chattel, our family members and our laborers, our household pets and our household pests. We love them and cage them, admire them and abuse them. And, of course, we cook and eat them."

"Paul McCartney had a baby when he was 61 Rod Stewart was 66 Rupert Murdoch was a stunning 72. Not only does that mean they'll have less stamina than the average dad, that means they'll, well, check out a lot sooner too."

"Marriage is a lot of things - a source of love, security, the joy of children, but it's also an interpersonal battlefield, and it's not hard to see why: Take two disparate people, toss them together in often-confined quarters, add the stresses of money and kids - now lather, rinse, repeat for the rest of your natural life. What could go wrong?"

"More and more NFL players have been willing their bodies to science so that their brains can be studied even if they die of other causes."

"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster."

"It is a wearisome illness to preserve one's health by too strict a regimen."

"I was diagnosed with a severe temporal spatial deficit, a learning disability that means I have zero spatial relations skills. It was official: I was a genius trapped in an idiot's body."

"True wealth is not measured in gold, but in the belief that kindness can heal wounds that time cannot."