The list of ailments is long: corns, calluses, blisters, trapped nerves; toes so squished they look like claws. An actual condition called "mallet toe."

Once upon a time, planning travel meant booking overnight trains from Venice to Paris. My husband and I tramped through cathedrals. We hiked to desolate beaches. And if we got tired, we'd just hole up in a fancy hotel and run up a room-service tab. It was a grown-up world. It was good. And it never strayed from its first commandment: Thou Shalt Not Be Bored.

They're smiling. They're beguiling. They're darling Irish girls.

Long before "Twilight" and "True Blood" and the Modern Age of Vampires, garlic was used as a talisman: a panacea against bad spirits in the Middle Ages and against illness during the Crusades. Even those of us who happily load our soups and stews with dozens of the pale cloves can tell why it was hung across doorways to prevent entrance. Mature garlic can be overwhelming, even relentless; a single raw clove minced on a board is capable of determining the course of an entire meal, whether you want it to or not.

What does Forbes know?