Most of us need cheering up from time to time, but the current economy is enough to depress everyone. What to do?  Get involved and help, which will not only cheer you up, but also improve someone else's life!  The following materials have excellent opportunities that will suit anyone, anywhere.

   Enter the huge world of aged or fresh, hard, semi-soft and soft cheeses.  The world cheese book edited by Juliet Harbutt takes you around the world, through each country, with a photo and description of each cheese. The introduction explains the various cheese categories and their techniques and particularities.  The rest of the book is devoted to more than two hundred cheeses.

   Actually, this is about knees and feet, not just toes. Each year many people undergo surgery or incur an injury to their knee or foot--the knee is the most commonly injured joint in the body.  Most people don't realize what a lifestyle change such an injury can be.  Recently a colleague, whom I will call Jeanne for this article, took a bad fall which required knee surgery.  She quickly discovered that her two-story home with steps up to the entrances was less than ideal, especially in Michigan winter.

    This year's Wordwise weekend features Jewell Parker Rhodes, author of the Voodoo Dreams' series. The Voodoo Dreams' series draws from history, in this case on the history and legend of the 19th-century voodoo priestess Marie Laveau and her daughter of New Orleans.

    As the season of ice cream and cold desserts arrives, let's look at the attractions of chocolate.