Is depression an epidemic? Barbara Ehrenreich says that the way that depression seemed to sweep across Western Europe in the 17th Century <I>looks</I> like one, but is probably the result of the modern age's celebration of individuality. An increased sense of personal autonomy was accompanied by the loss of communal rituals and festivities that emphasized belonging to communities.

I have no idea how <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/technology/03music.web.html?hp">this<…; is going to impact the world of digital music.

Don't let the April 1 dateline throw you. It was also opening day, not just a holiday for the world's fools.

Kate Colquhoun reviews Martin Jones's <I>Feast: Why Humans Share Food</I>. At first I thought the article's title was absurdly inflated, but I was convinced by the time Colquhoun wrote: "To mangle Brillat-Savarin, he dissects not just what early humans ate, but how they ate, in order to draw conclusions about who they were. In the process, he proves once again that food and the ways we have chosen to process and proffer it can be more revealing than any other historical or prehistoric artefact."

Chandler Phillips thought he was applying to <I>Edmunds.com</I> for a job writing an advice column on buying and leasing cars. The editors had a better idea. They asked him to go undercover and work as a salesman at two lots: a high-pressure import dealership on the "auto mile" and a no-haggle American showroom.

Michael Ventura gets off the main roads and reports on the state of the union. The kids are leaving.