When Times Are Tough: 'Mommy!'

By JOHN GRAVOIS

Three catastrophic hurricanes slam the United States. Death tolls climb in Iraq. Gas prices skyrocket. The stock market slumps. Inflation picks up. Bird flu wings westward.

It's enough to send a man reaching for Playboy magazine to conduct some, ahem, research.

That's the case, anyway, with Terry F. Pettijohn II. A social psychologist...