My stepmother, aware of trends, told us we would be “LAT,” for “living apart together,” referring to couples that choose to live separately — even far apart — while remaining committed.

It was not ecological pressure or shortages of protein, as anthropologist Marvin Harris has claimed; institutionalized violence, as opposed to the stylized agons of hunters over grievances, was the shadow side of the Neolithic Revolution.

A towering wall of sand rushed over factories and apartment blocks in northwestern China's Gansu province as seasonal sandstorms barrelled across the country, causing air pollution and traffic accidents. Aerial images as it struck showed an apocalyptic scene as a billowing cloud of yellow dust smothered Gansu's Linze county on Sunday.

[…] they throng who should buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed and brought a benediction to the buyer: