Once, in Beijing, a young girl in a red gown huddled in a doorway.

Another time, in Cincinatti, a small wire-haired dog sprinted across a parking lot.

Last week, a gigantic monster on a small planetoid in the vicinity of Proxima Centuri ate a ham sandwich at a local monster-cafe.

On a nuclear sub beneath the ice of the Arctic, a captain of Hungarian descent vomited up the contents of his stomach, ingested the night before at a going-away party for a member of the crew.

On Broadway, a dancer in a leotard nervously practices for an upcoming performance, her...