Does shopping excite you? Does shopping depress you? Scientists say that when a shopper spots something they want, the chemical dopamine is released, making the person feel great.

However, once the experience of buying it is over, dopamine no longer flows freely, and there is a letdown.

A 50-light string is recommended, but all I have are the 100-light sets. Looks like another trip to the store.

On Christmas Day, a bittersweet song about a young gentleman full of promises.

She had a big house on the West Coast where prices were skyrocketing. They, the newlyweds, wanted a brownstone in NY where prices were out of sight. She was 89 and fragile. Could they get her to sell, and move to the East Coast where they could live together?

Maybe, but she had one wish (more like procreative real estate).

Simple to mix up from stuff you already have (salt, flour, water), and easy for kids to deal with. You can use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, bake for an hour to harden, then paint when they’re cool.

If you’re careful, they will last for years.

I only need the whites for sugared walnuts, but these can go in a pudding later.

For one thing, it isn’t grown in any ordinary watermelon patch.

Then there’s the whole Japanese gift fruit thing, which is explained here.

The Quebec strain’s genetic code has been cracked by McGill University researchers.

Health officials in the U.S. and Europe have also been worried by Clostridium difficile, which causes severe diarrhea, especially in hospital patients.

Researchers hope the new knowledge will help manage the infection, which spreads easily in care facilities.

I Wonder as I Wander.

It took chef Andrew Spiegel a few months to get the taste just right, but his offering for nicotine lovers was shot down by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, which said that tobacco cannot be added to food.

In a government-funded plan, those with dementia and other age-related conditions will be able to receive care at home. Visiting nurses will provide medication, clinical support, and help with daily needs such as helping a person to bed.

This is a much-needed program, and other countries should sit up and take notice.

In his photographs, contemporary figures occupy a space eerily like those in old paintings.

Dread the annual get-together at Grandma’s because someone always gets argumentative? According to scientists, it’s all about the traditional foods.

Potatoes and stuffing are high in carbs, which they say can lead to ups and downs in your blood sugar levels, especially if you also dig into chips and sweets, and wash it down with alcoholic beverages.

There you are, stuck in a house with people you avoid the rest of the year for good reason. With your insides hopscotching from low to high.

The advice is to go for the slowly digested foods such as mashed artichokes. And take deep, cleansing breaths.

At first it appeared the whale was too entangled in the crab trap lines to be cut loose.

Divers who freed a humpback whale near the Farallon Islands were amazed when the whale nuzzled each in what seemed to be an act of gratitude.

While no one knows exactly what the whale had in mind with its playful movements, the divers have the experience of a lifetime.

Talk about holiday magic.