Benchley. If you don't know the name, you know the output. Peter Benchley wrote the novels that made the movie "Jaws" and "The Deep" possible. His father, Nathaniel Benchley, wrote the book from which the risible classic "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" was made. Nathaniel's father was Robert Benchley, who lived from 1889 to 1945. As a writer, critic, humorist and performer, he became rich and famous at a time when lapidary wordplay was cherished and rewarded.

In recent years pick-your-own farms have invited day trippers and area residents alike to visit and to avail themselves of a taste of the country. What could be fresher or more flavorful than vegetables or fruit picked and taken home that very day?

"If you get the children, you get the families," said Judith Kelz, the director of the Glebe House Museum and the Gertrude Jekyll Garden in Woodbury, Conn. "And besides, some of these kids might grow up to be legislators."

Occasionally, an idea grips us so entirely it takes on a life of its own and leads to unexpected consequences. That is what happened to Frank and Carole Lalli when they first dreamed of having a wood-burning oven similar to those they had admired in Italy.

If there is an upside to the current escalation in energy prices, with the consequent increase in the cost of food and other commodities, it is the growing awareness among Americans that the earth is not a giant piggybank that can be robbed of its resources at will.

Ole Retlev declares that there's nothing else quite like it-where else can you spend an evening, or several evenings, as a guest in the sleek surroundings of one of this country's earliest examples of Modernist architecture?

Women have a seemingly unlimited number of options when it comes to buying bras. Major chain retailers have added lingerie lines to their offerings, and some lingerie companies have become part of the American lexicon, with their catalogues as important as the product itself. The upscale lingerie brand Le Mystere, with a distribution center and offices in New Milford, Conn., proves that quality over quantity matters most when it comes to shaping the modern woman's silhouette.