Sometime in early January, I asked my friend Abby how her holidays had been. She launched into a story about the gift she had given her mother. "I gave my mom a new TV for the kitchen," she said. "Her ...

Kids love rubber bands. Adults too, really. Rubber bands can be a child's first real introduction into the stretchy and bouncy world of elastomers. They can be used as low-impact weaponry against both ...