1.   After decades spent battling the severe arthritis and accompanying depression that crippled his once-glorious career, the pianist Byron Janis is flush with optimism.

2.   After decades spent in the withering public spotlight, Gloria Steinem would like a little privacy.

3.   After decades spent passing the toughest criminal laws and building the largest penal system in the nation, Texas lawmakers are taking a timeout.

4.   Both parties routinely agreed for decades to spend excess Social Security payroll tax revenues on general government operations.

5.   Decades of work spent building the communities washed away in a single event.

6.   Richard von Weizsaecker bows out as German president on Friday after a decade spent investing the largely ceremonial post with at least moral authority.