Afterbirth for Dinner

There is so much you can’t know about your spouse when you get married, like that one day she will want to eat her placenta. But there are two things you don’t argue about with a pregnant woman: what she eats and that being full of life indeed looks sexy. So when Cassandra told me that for $275, a woman would come to our house, cook Cassandra’s placenta, freeze-dry it and turn it into capsules to help ward off postpartum depression and increase milk supply, I said, “$275 is a bargain compared with the $20,000 I’ll have to spend to tear out our kitchen immediately afterward.” Most mammals, Cassandra explained, eat their placentas, to which I countered that most dogs eat their poop.

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Oasis from the ruins: Afghanistan opens first national park

Most days it is easy to think God may have forgotten about Afghanistan, but there can be a day when you feel like you are in heaven. We were invited by the United States Agency for International Development to witness the dedication of Afghanistan’s first national park: The Band-e-Amir National Park, a series of six crystal-blue lakes surrounded by heart-stopping cliffs and natural dams that capture the imagination. “‘If you look at the beauty,’ as we say in our language, ‘it’s poetry for your eyes, for your mind and for your soul,'” said the former Prince of Afghanistan, Mustafa Zahir, who attended the opening ceremony.

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‘Idol’ finalists dish on singing, strategy and sexuality

"American Idol" viewers had a clear choice when it came down to the final decision: the low-key but sincere Kris Allen or the flamboyant and powerful Adam Lambert. The vote went for Allen, and Lambert told Ryan Seacrest on CNN’s “Larry King Live” that the outcome didn’t surprise him. There are no hard feelings, though

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