"All we want in this world is crazy beautiful happiness," said Delores del Rio, expounding her version of eudaemonism, in Flying Down to Rio.  For a guy who seems not to have heard of Epicurus, John Lanchester, writing in The New Yorker (Feb. 27) does a nice job reviewing two recent books: Jonathan Haidt (Psychology, Virginia), The Happiness Hypothesis, and Darrin McMahon (History, Florida State), Happiness: A History.  Enjoy!

Really, really wanna be happy?  George Will, in "Smile If (and Only If) You’re Conservative" advises being right wing–just not "professionally" right wing, which can make you surlier than a bumper sticker on a Volvo.