How to avoid death by lightning – April 3, 2015 New York Times article

It’s almost never a bolt out of the blue

An April 3, 2015 New York Times article is entitled: “How to Avoid Death by Lightning.”

The opening paragraph reads:

“For most of the last 15 years, Michael Utley has been passing out refrigerator magnets that say ‘When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors!’ If he could go back in time to heed his own advice, lightning would not have ripped through him on a Cape Cod golf course in May 2000. Most important, don’t ignore the warnings: telltale rumble, blackening sky, the weather report. ‘It is almost never a bolt out of the blue,’ says Utley, who gives lectures on lightning safety.”

McMansions

A Sept. 19, 2014 New York Times article is entitled: “Let a Hundred McMansions Bloom.”

The opening sentence reads: “In the Dianshan Lake region, less than 40 miles west of central Shanghai, the appetite for speculative real estate has driven developers into China’s most fertile land, the Yangtze Delta.”

The keeping society

An April 4, 2015 New York Times article is entitled: “Turning Clutter Into Joy.”

An excerpt reads:

“Another of my most joy-producing activities is volunteering at the ‘keeping society’ in the Maine town where my family lives for part of the year. Keeping societies exist in places too small to warrant museums, and are often curated by the elder statesmen of the community, who themselves are a vital part of the exhibit. Their stories give value to the typical holdings of a keeping society: dented tobacco tins and rusted egg beaters and glass tonic bottles and ledgers full of sums.”