Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.

Ready-witted tenderness […] never stagnates in vain lamentations while there is any room for hope.

Throughout the negotiations, Makarios would nod sagely as if agreeing with every point Ball raised. Then he would beatifically repeat that the Cyprus problem should go to the U.N.

Convince me that I am wrong, and I will recant.