Born to Trot

We had a sick donkey and a ticking clock, so there wasn’t time to fool around. Our friend Tanya McKean, a horse trainer and veterinary assistant, clicked a rope to the donkey’s halter, then looped it under her butt and swayed way back, using her full body weight to persuade the donkey to place his…

We Flew All the Way Here for This?

My partner’s ex-wife throws up roadblocks to seeing his two daughters when we go to visit them. It’s a two-hour flight, so it’s not a small thing to visit. But his ex occupies all the girls’ time when we’re there. They are in their early 20s and live on their own. They complain about how…

36 Hours in Yokohama

Yokohama resides in the perpetual shadow of its more prominent neighbor. Less than half an hour by train from Tokyo, the sprawling port city is the second-largest in Japan, yet registers as barely a blip among most tourists to the region. But that may soon change, at least among sports fans. This fall, Yokohama is…

Can Personality Affect Dementia Risk?

Your personality in high school may help predict your risk of dementia decades later. Researchers reached this conclusion using a 150-item personality inventory given to a national sample of teenagers in 1960. The survey assessed character traits — sociability, calmness, empathy, maturity, conscientiousness, self-confidence and others — using scores ranging from low to high. For…