This is a short work week due to the Labor Day Holiday. People are slammed, trying to get work done and the children back to school…and everything else. Someone said their short week felt more like a punishment requiring them to work even longer hours. Conversations have turned to the mythic Work-Life Balance. Where did this come from? This term was coined around 1986. Men and women of color and white women had begun making serious...

Big drinker that I am (Garland cuts me of the java, because he thinks it goes to my noggin), I read an article about international focus group strategy used by the Jack Daniels distillery to expand its brand and it left me a little troubled. It assumes that the German, Australian, Japanese and British people studied are one monolithic “culture.” Even Britain, made up of several distinct indigenous people (Welsh, Scottish,...

I’ve been quiet for a while. Here’s the scoop. Everybody’s finally fine. Garland just finished his three month treadmill test and his cardiologist is very pleased. He had a little angina (still has some blockages), but his doc said that everything is moving the right direction. Dad came out the other side of his septic pneumonia (a deadly form) looking better and feeling better than he had in years (only Dad could take a...

Just say “no?” Seems like this has energized many of you (ticking off some) and gotten you into action. Being one who thinks when it gets tough one should dig deeper (as opposed to scarpering away), we’re going to look some more at this ugly topic. We’ve discussed the bloated lifestyle that has us say “yes” to everything without limitation…and then giving up sleep, family life and sanity to try to...

Only in our fevered imaginations. While on vacation, I observed my expensive (but not very bright) purebred cat checking out her temporary new digs. She touched everything in the hotel room and got poleaxed at the full-length mirror. Believing it to be a doorway to a magical new world, she began frantically digging for gold on the face of the mirror. Every few minutes all through the evening, she’d stop and gaze longingly at that...

The direct competitors for the buyers of the Saturn Aura are the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord. Coming soon to a Saturn dealership near you, you’ll be able to test drive the Aura…and the Accord…and the Camry, right at the Saturn dealership. Fully confident that you’ll see superior quality and ride in the Aura, they put their money right where their mouths are. I’ve often wondered what would happen if I told...