Yes, so it’s a bit presumptuous of me to announce this, but it’s something I’ve been think about. You likely have heard of the “Three Legged Stool” concept of retirement: your retirement income comes partly from Social Security, partly from your employer, and partly from your own savings. Just as a stool can’t stand with only one or two legs, so, too, retirees need income from all three sources, and can’t rely solely on Social Security or their employer pension.... Read more
Not the surveillance-state aspect that everyone’s talking about. (You know, the fact that, according to the story, as told to us by the Official Elf on the Shelf book and elf doll, first published in 2005, he magically goes to Santa every night from Thanksgiving to Christmas to tell him if you’ve been good or bad.) But (a) the fact that it is an “instant tradition” that we’re told we must observe because someone saw a marketing opportunity. And the... Read more
My middle son’s birthday is December 17th, and we (my husband and I) are the sort of people who don’t do a lot of big Christmas things, so we tend to do our shopping at the last minute, that is, getting a start after the birthday celebration is done. And today is the last day one can order off Amazon and still get free shipping! Youngest son: age 7, second grade. He likes Legos (though he has plenty already), art,... Read more
The newspaper headlines this morning, and the online news reported yesterday, were pretty dreary: a report on the president’s actions to normalize relations with Cuba and a report that Sony is cancelling its planned distribution of The Interview, in reaction to terrorist threats. With respect the latter: well, what can you say? Or, rather, what can I say? It’s terrible, and Sony’s excuse that they don’t want to have a bad Christmas earnings from fearful Americans in Everytown, USA, staying... Read more
Jeb Bush may have been a spectacular governor; I don’t really know. So far as I can tell, he’s trying to play the Jon Huntsman of the 2016 election, with an “I’m better than all of you because I can Speak Truth to Power,” even though, in this case, the Truth is “you’re all a bunch of idiots” and the “Power” is the grassroots conservative Republican. But that doesn’t really matter. The very fact that Jeb Bush’s brother and father... Read more
If you’re Catholic, and maybe even if you aren’t, you’ve probably been told that St. Francis said, “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” Now, turns out, this St. Francis said nothing of the sort, but people love, love, love this quote: it tells them that they need not feel obliged to talk about their faith to strangers, or to acquaintences or professional colleagues or neighbors or even friends, so long as, by their actions they act... Read more
“Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes” – or, Pegida (Germans like acronyms every bit as much as the U.S. does). It translates as Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West (literally, the Occident), and it’s a group that’s been organizing weekly demonstrations in Dresden in the former East Germany. On Monday, they had the largest crowd yet, 15,000 people. The Guardian has a description of the event, in which they highlight the neo-Nazi element of the protests. Their... Read more
For a consulting actuary, I don’t travel much — I generally work with my clients over the phone. But once a year I drive up to a client located near the Lake Zurich/Long Grove area of Chicagoland. And as I did so today, I was really struck by the subdivisions. OK, maybe I need to get out more. But, as I’ve said before, I live on the grid, that is, in an older, but still suburban, neighborhood — a neighborhood... Read more
According to today’s Tribune, Starwood Hotels has piloted a new program that allows its guest to decline, not just fresh towels daily, but the entire housekeeping service, for up to three days in a row, in reward for a credit towards food or drinks, or extra frequent-customer points. (It’s promoted as a “green” initiative, because of the water and electricity savings — from not mopping floors and not using a vacuum, I guess — but, of course, it’s primarily a... Read more
Really. Of course, Borders and Barnes & Noble drove out the smaller bookstores, though I was never really familiar with the romanticized mom & pop store (except for the local Christian bookstore that shut down some years ago) and only ever new the mall stores like B. Dalton. But it occurs to me that it’s not just new bookstores that have closed down, but that the four used bookstores nearest me a decade ago have all now closed down. Is... Read more
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