Wanted: Woman seeking man: tall, handsome, bright, family-oriented leader of the free world. Sure, only one gentleman fills that bill at the...

The new Jesus Trail in Israel is a rugged hike on holy ground, covering biblical sites, Crusader battlefields, Muslim shrines. It's a 40-mile trek that wanders from Nazareth in northern Israel through Arab villages, kibbutz farmland, and some stunning landscape to the Sea of Galilee.

Whenever I was allowed to sleep in on the Saturday mornings of my youth, I'd listen for the peddler with the sharpening stone. "Knives and scissors," he'd sing-song his way through the alley behind our rowhouse. Unfortunately, my mother was deaf to his calls. To her, cheap knives were good enough. And to my knowledge, she never had hers sharpened. Thus, I came to cooking inadequately armed.