Don't ask the barber whether you need a haircut

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.

Goods are traded, but services are consumed and produced in the same place. And you cannot export a haircut. But we are coming close to exporting a haircut, the appointment part. What kind of haircut do you want? Which barber do you want? All those things can and will be done by a call center far away.

Love is the self-delusion we manufacture to justify the trouble we take to have sex.

Storing your car in New York is safer than entering it in a demolition derby. But not much.

The scientific community having made a rapid ascent from deep poverty to great affluence, from academe's cloisters to Washington's high councils, still tends to be a bit excitable - not unlike a nouveau riche in a fluctuating market.