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	Don't forget to drop by the gift shop, where you can plaster your favorite chapter mascot across your chest, desk or tote bag. (And all merchandise is American-made, for you red-blooded types who care about such things.) Check out the new online Gift Shop to find out what the hubbub's all about!

Seppuku by Train At the end of the line is where some Japanese decide to catch the train. Mainichi Shimbun (Tokyo), 2000 - 2002

T o most Westerners, Japan is an exotic society, known for, among other things, its slick bullet trains, designed

to shuttle the ever-burgeoning populance to and from their places of employ, and for its fascination with suicide, so entwined with their concepts of personal and public honor that it seems to have become an integral part of the national psyche. As an instrument of suicide, a train, even one not of the bullet variety, can deliver an end not only swift and final, but spectacularly public, immediately affecting the lives of thousands, thus fulfilling any candidate's wish to make a powerful last statement....

(Chapter 10)

Can't Take It With You Determined thief demonstrates that only hope floats.

(Chapter 5)

Save the Last Dance 90-year-old retiree discovers 500 lb. dancing bear has two left feet.

(Chapter 4)

Rush The "mad race" for precious fares in Thailand has few winners.

(Chapter 5)

Fresh Kill Who'd ever guess fresh food could be bad for you?

(Chapter 1)

Right Place, Right Time When you gotta go, there's only one right place to be.

(Chapter 4)

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