Mencken Knew It All Along: Happiness Is Contagious

In a study published online by the British Medical Journal, scientists from Harvard University and UC San Diego showed that happiness spreads readily through social networks of family members, friends and neighbors.

"Your emotional state depends not just on actions and choices that you make, but also on actions and choices of other people, many of which you don't even know," said Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and medical sociologist at Harvard who co-wrote the study.

Mencken proposed this:

If after I depart this vale you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost...wink your eye at some homely girl.