Happiness

In general, do you feel happy? If you had a second chance in life, would you rather be an honest farmer, a hard-working laborer, a worry-free civil servant, a respected manager, a designer, an office clerk, a teacher, a homemaker, or stay in your current profession? What would make you happier? It seems almost gratuitous to be posing such questions in a country where income levels have increased fivefold in half a generation. But the Chinese are discovering one of life's greatest lessons: that money doesn't necessarily buy you happiness.

Want to say happy birthday to the Golden Gate Bridge ? There's an app for that. OK, not quite, but the National Parks Conservancy had a free GoGGBridge app created to help celebrate the big day. (An Android version is to be released before the bridge's birthday on Sunday.) Here are some of its fine points and some of its lesser points. --A tap of the finger can make you a GG Bridge expert. The Nuts & Bolts facts include the bridge's length (1.7 miles long), weight (887,000 tons)

Does happiness rise with income? In one of the more scientific attempts to answer that question, researchers from Princeton have put a price on happiness. It's about $75,000 in income a year. They found that not having enough money definitely causes emotional pain and unhappiness. But, after reaching an income of about $75,000 per year, money can't buy happiness. More money can, however, help people view their lives as successful or better. In the study, researchers tried to evaluate the effect of money in two ways: One was on how people think about their lives and the other was on the feelings they have as they experience life.

Clayton Christensen achieves the difficult feat of being at once imposing and humble. When I visited him last autumn at Harvard Business School, he laid out with quiet authority his latest thoughts on disruptive technology, the concept that justly made him famous in the mid-1990s. But he also took time to chat about his son's college basketball team, a poster of which hangs on one wall of an office full of family photos and memorabilia. Although he places great value on his family and faith — he is a devout Mormon — his research and teaching have dominated his public story.

'Happiness Runs' Writer-director Adam Sherman's haunting early years growing up on a hippie commune inspired his semi-autobiographical "Happiness Runs," an astoundingly bad memory piece that blows its potential dramatic heft at every turn. Certainly, how the peace-and-love generation's experiment with group living may have turned rancid is a topic ripe for narrative dissection, but Sherman never finds a safe enough distance from his traumatic past to tell an effective story.

Someday in the not-too-distant future, the U.S. departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Justice and Labor could be joined be a new executive branch entity: The Department of Happiness. That's right. There's a growing movement among economists and other researchers to make the psychological well-being of citizens a major government priority. The first step, they say, is to come up with a way to measure a nation's happiness. Ideally they'd like to be able to boil it all down into a single statistic that will resonate with voters - think of it as a mental health equivalent of GDP or the unemployment rate.

I find it a sad commentary on the times (and city) we live in that your section so consistently emphasizes those twin obsessions of the rich and famous: the latest cosmetic surgery techniques and the latest trendy exercise fads. The Aug. 25 edition was almost a parody of this pattern. Your top two stories were about a new way for people to artificially look younger than they are through injections; and high-priced boutique gyms for over-scheduled kids. The stories only added to the already warped mind-set of our culture by confirming that we all need to look younger and have more money to be happy.

Money can't buy love, they say. But how much for happiness? The answer: $50,000. A couple of years ago, researchers at Princeton University determined that people making at least $75,000 a year are happy. Moreover, more income doesn't mean more happiness. As long as you're pocketing $75,000, you're as happy as someone pulling down $175,000. Times have changed. Now the Marist Institute for Public Opinion says you can achieve happiness with an annual paycheck of just $50,000 . People making less: not so happy.

Re "The Pursuit of Anything but Happiness," Commentary, June 6: Lisa Grunwald is right to question the pursuit of happiness, if happiness is no more than getting what we want. That does seem to be the currently held view. I confess that I do, however, "just want my daughter to be happy" -- along with all those with whom she shares this planet. I happen to like the Buddhist teachings, which suggest that happiness lies not in "getting what we want" but in understanding that desire (along with its opposite, revulsion)

The Pursuit of Happiness is no revolutionary rock band, but it is one worth rallying around for listeners who think that a catchy melody and a hammering beat is a pop fan's inalienable right. The strength of the Canadian band's show on Saturday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano was its ability to send time and again a capsule of captivating melody into orbit on the shoulders of a booster-rocket instrumental surge. But by overplaying its strength, TPOH turned it into a flaw.

Garry Marshall's touchstones: Joey Bishop The comedic member of the Rat Pack and host of "The Joey Bishop Show" was Marshall's mentor "Happy Days" The nostalgic ABC comedy series that made Henry Winkler a superstar aired from 1974 to 1984. "Pretty Woman" This iconic 1990 romantic comedy resurrected the career of Richard Gere and earned Julia Roberts an Oscar nomination.

In his new autobiography, "My Happy Days in Hollywood," which he co-wrote with his daughter Lori, Garry Marshall recalls the time in his life when he wasn't very happy - producing the 1976-83 ABC comedy series "Laverne & Shirley. " "It was a tough show," recalled the gregarious Marshall with his trademark Bronx accent, in his memorabilia-filled office at his Falcon Theatre in Burbank. It was the opposite of the carefree set of "Happy Days," the ABC series about the Cunningham family and leather-jacket clad Fonzie (Henry Winkler)

Despite a second-place finish for Bodemeister, both his trainer and jockey were very happy with his effort. "He ran his race," said Bob Baffert, who runs his barn out of Southern California. "He was there and just got tired a little bit. He's only run four times, and I was really proud of him. He's a super impressive horse. "It's the only time I've run second where I've been happy because he ran his race. " Jockey Mike Smith agreed. "He didn't finish first, but he's still a winner," Smith said.

Today is the 448th birthday of William Shakespeare -- that is, if you believe the widely held assumption that the Bard was born on April 23. Like many things involving the greatest playwright in the English language, the day of his birth is shrouded in mystery. Shakespeare is believed to have been born on this day in 1564 but there is no official record that confirms it. The future writer was baptized on April 26 and it was customary at the time for infants to be baptized three days after birth.

As Earth Day directs our attention to how to live more gently, here are 10 tips for greener travel, gathered with the help of David Owen, author of the recently released book “The Conundrum,” and with eco-destination operators, hoteliers, travel experts and environmentalists from the Natural Resources Defense Council. 1. Make every trip count. “The environmental key to travel is not how you go, but how much you go and how far you go,” says Owen, whose book is subtitled, “How Scientific Innovation, Increased Efficiency and Good Intentions Can Make Our Energy and Climate Problems Worse.” Owen notes that trains aren't necessarily greener than planes.

Money can't buy love, they say. But how much for happiness? The answer: $50,000. A couple of years ago, researchers at Princeton University determined that people making at least $75,000 a year are happy. Moreover, more income doesn't mean more happiness. As long as you're pocketing $75,000, you're as happy as someone pulling down $175,000. Times have changed. Now the Marist Institute for Public Opinion says you can achieve happiness with an annual paycheck of just $50,000 . People making less: not so happy.

Recently I journeyed back to my hometown, Muskegon, Mich., to toast my aunt and uncle on their 50th wedding anniversary. It was a lovely, nostalgic time and, since I was to be a speaker at their big dinner, I had to do some thinking about the meaning of it all. A half century together . . . what an awesome statistic. Had they been happy? Couples of this generation often feel embarrassed by the question; it seems almost grandiose to be verbalizing about such concepts.

True or false: ___ I would be happier if I made more money, found the perfect mate, lost 10 pounds or moved to a new house. ___ Happiness is genetic. You can't change how happy you are any more than you can change how tall you are. ___ Success brings happiness. Answers: False, false and false. -- IF RECENT scientific research on happiness -- and there has been quite a bit -- has proved anything, it's that happiness is not a goal. It's a process. Although our tendency to be happy or not is partly inborn, it's also partly within our control.

If you were to travel anywhere in the globe -- even to visit remote tribes who have scant contact with the larger world -- would people be able to read your emotions from your facial expressions (happiness, sadness, disgust, etc.) and would you be able to read theirs? In other words, do people smile when they're happy, wrinkle their noses when disgusted, the world over? Scientists have long thought so, but authors of a new study challenge the idea. Charles Darwin argued in “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” that basic facial expressions are universal -- implying that are hard-wired within us, the product of natural selection.

Right about now, the Lakers are glad they didn't use their amnesty provision to cut Metta World Peace last December. It was discussed by the front office, as were other players' names, but the Lakers holstered their ability to waive one player without paying luxury taxes on his salary. Turned out to be a good move. Or non-move. World Peace has been a catalyst the last six games, averaging 18 points and shooting 58%. Lakers fans used to groan whenever he hoisted a three-point attempt.