I'm not sure how many of you have a BlackBerry or any one of a number of new PDAs that have hit the market recently, but take it from me, an avid Treo user, getting your email fix anywhere, anytime, is about as close to an adiction as anything I've ever known. (Hold, perhaps, chocolate... especially, lately, DARK CHOCOLATE!) Stuck at a red light for more than 5 seconds? Well that's plenty of time to check the 'ol email. In line at the Stop'N'Shop (the express lane!)? Heck, why not return your mother's... READ ON

While my use of Spirographs and Paint-by-Numbers kits have certainly hinted at my artistic genius over the years, I never realized I was so talented until I began playing with the online Jackson Pollock simulator. After using it for about an hour yesterday before bed, and then another hour after I woke up, I've come to realize some minor problems with the j-Po simulator: you can't vary the textures—"˜Jack the Dripper" used everything from trowels and sticks to sand... READ ON

Speaking of Stephen Sondheim, on this day in 1819, Jacques Offenbach, who most consider the "inventor" of the operetta, was born in Cologne. The operetta (literally, "little opera"), differs from a full-blown opera because there is often acting, or moments where the libretto, or text, is spoken between songs. An opera libretto, of course, is sung straight through. And while you probably haven't heard of any of Offenbach's operettas, certainly you'd recognize HMS Pinafore or The Pirates of Penzance, by... READ ON

First the Midwest mumps outbreak, now this: Several people here in Boston have come down with the measles and/or rubella, apparently including a member of the Christian Science Church, which is well known for its queasy stance toward MMR vaccination. Anti-vaccine hysteria has also been blamed for a huge epidemic of measles in Britain, even though by now many studies (including a new one in next month's Pediatrics) have disproven any link between vaccines and autism. And "vaccine fatigue" may also be behind... READ ON