The Sunday New York Times had a number of treats in it yesterday, but my favorite (a close second was Maureen Dowd’s column about the heroic archbishop of Dublin) is the “Lives” essay in the The New York Times Magazine. It’s called “Whole-Life Premium” with the sub-head, “Is there anything about you that’s really worth insuring?”

Brendan Tapley cleverly captures in a telephone conversation one industry’s version of “value.” So good.