Let us now consider an African osmology—specifically, the system of olfactory classification of the Serer Ndut of Senegal.

Twyla Tharp could have toe danced on the counter, and the president wouldn't have noticed.

Conjuring up images of Gene Hackman as the surveillance expert in Francis Ford Coppola ’s film “The Conversation,” Mr. Morton moved through the park surreptitiously for more than 40 days over the course of a year, capturing gospel choirs, park-bench arguments, the rattle of dead leaves and the heartbeatlike clack of lawn-bowling balls.

On the preceding Monday Shobana had gone on vacation.