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Just one of the gals

My wife and I recently returned from a long-delayed week’s vacation south of the border staying at what was the first “health and fitness” retreat, Rancho La Puerta, founded in 1940. The founders of the ranch were a Transylvanian professor named Edward Szekely and his... Continue

You are your credit score

There was a time when paying bills was a private affair, as were auto loans or credit card charges. An invoice was received, a check or money order was sent as payment; sometimes one would visit a local business and pay an invoice in cash.... Continue

Hairball on speaking up

These days a lot of us are full of huge hairballs. Unfortunately, cats get them out better than people. Telling the truth can be risky but not speaking up can also have serious consequences. If peace and closeness are what we want, communication is imperative.... Continue

The myth of management

Human beings have been managing many things for a long time; we manage piling rocks into a wall, corralling livestock, selling stocks and bonds and so forth. The “management of things” means things are used and applied to situations by human effort so that a... Continue

Last and first men

I’m reading a 1996 book entitled “Demonic Males” which endeavors to explore the roots of male violence by examining the history and habits of our closest animal relative, the chimpanzee. Genome comparisons show we share 99 percent of our genes with chimpanzees, but genes tell... Continue

The never-ending process of submitting grant applications

Almost any day of the week, you can find the staff and volunteers of many local nonprofits spending countless hours writing grant proposals to present to charitable foundations and businesses to meet their application deadlines. According to the American Association of Fundraising Counsel’s annual study... Continue

The taxonomy of taxes

Everyone hates taxes, or so it’s said, yet of the certain both death and taxes are included. The anti-tax crusaders bellow “no new taxes!” while the pro-tax crusaders sound apologetic. At best the pro-tax forces muster arguments about “fairness,” but this is not a terribly... Continue

Coming to terms with the bib

I’ve been back in New York City for a while visiting my mother. She’s nearing 89-years-old, slowing down and not quite up to whipping up a big dinner like she used to, so we’ve been going out to eat quite a bit. Having run the... Continue

Why me?

Dear Bonnie: I got a letter from the IRS yesterday. They want to audit my 2009 income tax return. Why me? I just have a little business and barely get by. I’m a small fry. It scares me and I don’t even have anything to... Continue

Dark matter comes to light

Physicists generally agree the matter we can see and detect makes up only a small percentage of the total matter in the universe, something less than 17%. The remaining matter has been named “dark matter” because it cannot and has not been positively detected; its... Continue