Is it now the rule that coffeemakers only last about a year? Mine quit halfway through the brew cycle yesterday, but I got it to work by jiggling it. Today it got about one-third of the way through and quit. No matter how hard I cussed, jiggled or bashed it it wouldn’t complete the cycle, …
As the NFL playoffs head into their first full weekend, here’s some food for thought. I remember reading about former NFL players and their difficulties getting disability checks out of their own union, despite a separate fund set up within the pension system to do just that. I had no idea it was this bad. …
Not that I’m a conspiracy theorist, but I find Bush’s words from a joint press conference hosted by President Bush and Palestinian Authority President Abbas a little disturbing: And I believe it’s possible — not only possible, I believe it’s going to happen, that there will be a signed peace treaty by the time I …
Gene Lyons has some thoughts about what Hillary should say to Obama if she could afford absolute straight talk: Everybody’s sickened by Washington-style partisan warfare. We all have Republican friends and relatives whose ideals we value. It’s never been true that all the good ideas belong to one faction or party. But when I cross …
Here’s a personal example of financial services companies screwing their customers: one of my credit cards has a payment due date this month of January 11. Today, January 9, I went online to pay it directly from my checking account through the Automated Clearing House system. The payment date was auto-filled as January 14. Note …
Scott Long writes an occasional series at The Juice he calls “Please Explain” wherein he asks why a certain person/phenomenon captures our attention. Previous subjects have included Whoopi Goldberg, Danica Patrick, Bon Jovi, “Deal or No Deal,” Larry King and Kenny Chesney. After reading this nasty column from Maureen Dowd following Hillary’s NH win, I’m …
Barack won Iowa, and now Hillary has won New Hampshire. Good. I’m fed up with this idiotic system which determines who my party’s nominee is long before any big states get to vote. All due respect to Iowa and New Hampshire voters, but there aren’t a lot of them, not a lot of them come …
From Rhino Records, here’s a new 4-CD boxed set entitled “Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970.” The CDs are contained within a 120-page hardbound book with rare photos and essays. There are some big hits here, but there are a lot of songs from bands which never made it outside of …
When faced with the depredations of the Bush Administration over the past six years, I’ve gotten fairly emotional at times. It’s hard for me to fault Hillary if she does the same. Who among us hasn’t occasionally felt like weeping for the direction this country has been taken since 2000? Think Progress notes that when …
Remember The Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride?” Very upbeat tempo, right? Have you ever heard Richard Carpenter’s arrangement? There’s a poignancy and sense of foreboding about this version that I really like. The video’s cheesy (hey, it was 1969!), but the recording is excellent.