RANDOLPH, Vt. — Eric Truran and Diana Salyer's unconventional method of doing business is working so well, success has become their biggest problem.

You're not likely to find the Courierware course for success in any business textbook, but if you did, it would prescribe something like this:

He's a hard-throwing right-hander with great control. He's got a rubber arm and is in the lineup practically every day. He's a local kid, not even 30 yet, but still a 17-year veteran. Rookies copy his style and dream of achieving what he has.

And he can claim a Fenway feat that no one else can. It sure doesn't sound like anyone on this year's struggling squad, and it isn't. We're talking about Rob Barry, the peanut vendor with the golden arm.

NAIROBI, Kenya — One of Yogi Berra's famous malaprops is, "No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded."

Kenya is like that these days, only different. No one goes there anymore, so it's a lot less crowded.

There are plenty of reasons not to go, of course: political violence, tourism crime, washed-out roads, fears of Rift Valley Fever and other exotic diseases, and even the weather. Even some tour operators in Kenya, whose livelihood depends on attracting people to the central African nation, say they have difficulty advising people to come.

MARBLEHEAD - No matter how far world-class cyclist Tyler Hamilton's trips have taken him, every one has been round, finishing up in the quirky, narrow streets of this seaside village.

Eventually.

For even though he and his wife, Haven, 33, consider their seven-room, two-bath house to be their home, they spend only about three months a year in it because the Tour de France, and all the other elite racing, occurs in Europe. "We kind of vacation at our home," says Hamilton, 31.

In wine circles, the yachtsman and industrialist Bill Koch represents the extreme collector: Before auctioning 3,400 bottles at Christie's a few years back, he had about 28,000 bottles in his two cellars in Osterville.

Between what Koch does and what those who keep a couple of bottles of Robert Mondavi above the fridge do, however, there's plenty of room, and it's there that Sanford and Katariina Anstey have found their comfort zone. They keep about 2,500 bottles in a cellar they built in the basement of their 100-year-old carriage house in a North Shore suburb.

One of the problems of the information age is information, flowing from endless electronic orifices. It can be so complicated: finding the right ones for you, getting hooked up to them, and then staying connected. This collection of electronic wonders may help you stay in touch.

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CAMBRIDGE - Carving turkey the traditional way has never been a strength for Harvey Baumann, a plastic surgeon who practices in Providence. "I get one or two good slices, and then it looks like an explosion in a meat factory," he says. "It's embarrassing. Here you are a surgeon and you can't carve a turkey."

I lost more than 250 pounds on the Atkins diet.

It's exactly the sort of statement the doctor himself would love, would seize upon for another notch on his smugly cinched belt. But just like the subheading of a recent New York Times Magazine cover story - which suggested that "maybe Dr. Atkins was right" - it's an incomplete thought.

Gordon Hamersley, Chef/owner, Hamersley's Bistro, Boston

"I could not do without my cast-iron braising pot. It's a 15-quart, very heavy, black cast-iron pot with a lid, and I bought it years ago. It's what I cook all my braises in. It's just this fabulous piece of equipment that conducts heat beautifully. You can lower the heat in your oven to almost nothing and it cooks beef stew, lamb shanks, or veal osso bucco in a wonderful way."

The listing at 10 Buick Street is pretty impressive: seven-and-a-half furnished rooms, including full kitchen and two baths; totally wired and well-maintained; air-conditioned; 24-hour security; exercise facility; and other generous amenities.

But it's the view, from the Harvard boathouse to the Blue Hills, with the Charles at your feet and the best parts of Cambridge and Boston in between, that sells the place. When they tell you the rent, only about $1,000 a month per person, your elation comes with a queasiness that tells you there has to be a catch.