When you buy a new home, there’s been a cherry on top for years to help seal the deal.

Dispatching Navy vessels armed with cruise missiles to take station off the coast of Libya and sending 50 more Marines to protect the U.S. embassy in Tripoli probably were necessary to safeguard American diplomatic personnel in that country.

The Evening Standard debate, hosted by Google, on how best to promote women in boardrooms was lively and stimulating. It took place as the EU proposed that 40 percent of non-executive directors of larger listed companies should be women.

One number from the undercover video of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s pep talk for big donors should bother everyone, and it is not 47 percent.

One of the things a Boy Scout must learn by heart is the Scout Law, a list of 12 precepts to live by.

Even with the aid of word processing technology, only about a fourth of American eighth- and 12th-graders can be considered reasonably conversant with Mother English.

Everyone knows what to do if they are gaining too much weight. Eat less and exercise more, and most bodies will respond.

In case anyone had forgotten, Moody’s Investors Service issued a stark reminder Sept. 11 that the federal government is speeding headlong toward a political and financial cliff.

In politics, ideas are repeated so often that they become familiar and get treated if they were facts. One of the most durable nuggets is the argument that tax cuts for the wealthy lead to economic growth.