One Last Thing Before I GoBy Jonathan Tropper (Dutton)Drew Silver is one of modern literature’s more pathetic losers. And that’s before he discovers an aortic dissection is about to kill him.The good news for Silver ― which is what everyone, even his daughter, calls him ― is that surgery can save his life. There’s a bit of bad news, and part of it is that the procedure would be performed by Silver’s ex-wife’s fiance. The other is that Silver, who is 44, doesn’t want the surgery.The sad-sack hero

Joe Posnanski moved to State College, Pa., to write a much different book.Posnanski, a former Kansas City Star sports columnist, imagined his biography of Penn State University’s heralded head football coach Joe Paterno would be about the man who, as Posnanski noted in a USA Today column last week, “always said ... that winning ... wasn’t what mattered. And yet, he won more games than anyone.” The book he was writing was based, after all, on full access to the coach and his records.And then ever

SNU professor back with another advice book for youthIt seems like Seoul National University Professor Kim Ran-do still has a lot of advice to give to young people, even after the success of his first collection of essays, “You are Young, Because You are Suffering.”The consumer science professor recently published another advice book, which is also written for 20-somethings in the country. While his former best-selling book specifically targeted university students, the new one, titled “You Beco

VENICE, Italy (AFP) ― Venetian canals transformed through a camera obscura, intimate snapshots of a prisoner’s life and a hall of whispers are among the installations on show at a new exhibition at Venice’s Palazzo Grassi.Around 30 works by 27 international artists, borrowed from French billionaire Francois Pinault’s private collection, explore how the medium of video has been used to capture and challenge sensory expression and perception.The hypnotic “For Beginners” videotape by contemporary A

Schreyer says designers need to stay ahead of customers’ expectationsWhen Kia Motors released its ambitious K-series, represented by the premium sedan K9 earlier this year, auto enthusiasts were more than thrilled. The vehicles were nothing like the ones Kia had shown before. The cars’ faade resembles that of a tiger and the interior is sleek like a panther. “A true era of the Kia sedan has opened,” a commentator said at the time of release. Behind the rejuvenation of the car maker was Peter Sch

SYDNEY (AFP) ― The world’s richest woman, Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart, urged those “jealous” of the wealthy to “spend less time drinking” in a piece blasted as “insulting” by Canberra on Thursday.Rinehart, whose family iron ore prospecting fortune of Aus$29.2 billion ($30.1 billion) also makes her Australia’s wealthiest person, hit out at those envious of the rich.“There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire,” she wrote in a regular industry magazine column.“If you’re jealous of th

  A man who wants to know if a woman is attracted to him should start by observing her behavior, according to a British dating coach.Behavioral psychologist and relationship coach Jo Hemmings said during an interview with the Daily Telegraph that women are able to say that they like someone by just using body language.One of the most common things to look for is the pulling up of sleeves.“If I’m sitting here and I find you attractive, I will probably pull my sleeves up. Because what that does is

PHILADELPHIA -- They‘re a tummy tuck and butt-lift in a bag. The new-millennium version of Grandma’s girdle, minus the bruising engineering. And each garment has a name so tart, so clever, that even hippy women feel hip when they squirm into a sheet of Spandex the size of a body condom.They are, of course, Spanx, the figure-slimming shapewear that has revolutionized how women dress by convincing ladies to shun comfort over compression. The brand has disinterred the dead-and-gone girdle by elimin