Happiness: Interview with an (Imaginary) Hostile Reader.

I got a big kick out of an anecdote recounted in Tara Parker-Pope's recent New York Times story about getting along with your relatives over the holidays. Two cousins were facing separate difficult family dinners, and in anticipation, they organized a game:

Each made bingo cards, but instead of numbers, the squares were filled in with some of the negative phrases they expected to hear during the meal, like "That outfit is interesting" or "Your children won't sit still." As comments were...