Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

It’s Christmas week. You’ve got shopping, parties, family obligations. And you’re late. Late, late, late. Always late. So why are so many people on your road as you try to get where you’re going???

Well … if you live in the United States, 20 percent of the adult population is chronically late. So you’re trying to push your way through the other 41.5 million late people who’re wondering why you’re on their road.

Isn’t there a better way to get to the egg nog on time?

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After years of recession, we know all about cutting back and being frugal. Folks knew all about it during the Great Depression, too. Executives at Montgomery Ward weren’t worried about pinching pennies when the mail-order giant launched its first retail store in the mid-1920s. But by 1939, even the retail powerhouse had to cut costs during its annual Christmas promotion. So instead of buying coloring books, the company decided to create its own in-house giveaways.

Although 35-year-old Robert Lewis May was fortunate enough to be employed as a copywriter in Montgomery Ward’s advertising department, it still wasn’t the most wonderful time of year for him. His wife was battling a terminal illness. But since he enjoyed trying his hand at children’s stories, he appreciated the assignment to come up with a booklet to replace the coloring books. Perhaps his melancholy over his wife’s illness led him to think of his childhood as a small, shy boy often teased by others. Inspired by his memories, he created Rudolph, a red-nosed reindeer rejected by his classmates.

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Eureka, that’s it! That’s it!

They’ve finally found the cure for the common cold!

Okay, well, not exactly. But researchers have figured out how you can get fewer than the two to four colds the average American adult catches each year, and how you can ensure those colds are less severe: exercise.

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Holidays bring families together … and to hear some tell it, the more is not the merrier. Many times I’ve listened silent and bug-eyed as friends have discussed the horrors of trying to plan gatherings for their parents and in-laws. It’s amazing how the offspring of such divergent clans managed to mate. These people have nothing in common beyond the marriage of their children and the fact that they share—and compete for the affection of—common grandchildren. No wonder my friends approach the holiday dinner as though they’re planning a summit meeting between the United States and North Korea.

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The American holiday of Thanksgiving is known for the three fs: family, football, and feasts—with special emphasis on the feasts.

Unfortunately, not every family is equally blessed with members skilled in the culinary arts. One of my friends used to dread her mom’s home-cooked meals. When the poor woman prepared ground beef, she thought the excess grease was gravy. Helen Hayes, an Oscar-winner in the 1930s and longtime grande dame of the stage must have been similarly challenged in the kitchen.

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 We’ve got PCs, netbooks, iPhones, iPods, and iPads; Wiis, Miis, and MP3s; Segways, GPS, and TiVo. But we still can’t tell the laundry to pick itself up off the floor, toss itself into the washer, and bring along one of those handy all-in-one detergent packs. No matter how much technology does for us, we still have chores—those tedious daily and weekly tasks that not even the Roomba robot vacuum can eliminate.

So how do we make these mundane tasks less mundane? Try turning them into a daily obstacle course.

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As we head into the year-end holidays, we look forward to our family traditions. We eat the same dishes, hang the same decorations, see the same people, listen to the same music, engage in the same activities we’ve enjoyed for years or even generations. Humans find comfort in familiarity, and resist change.

At least we resist change suggested by others. If it’s our idea, we can’t figure out why everyone makes such a fuss about trying something new.

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For many people in the world, this has been another disappointing year. No matter how the economists measure it, in practical terms, the global recession continues. Unemployment, war, poverty, disease, hunger, and homelessness remain universal issues. Divisiveness continues to impede solutions. It gives pause as we head toward America’s annual season of thanks.

If we’re not careful, we can get so caught up in our worries and woes that we forget our blessings. Lately life’s stresses have been weighing me down, but the other day a wise friend reminded me the constant through all my difficulties is that I’ve been loved. And that’s defnitely a reason to be thankful.

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These are treacherous times in the United States … for those trying to watch their weight. For a week they’ve been scraping themselves off the ceiling—either from the sugar high of sneaking into the Halloween stash, or from the frustration of trying to back away from the candy. And now that the jelly beans are finally gone, it’s time to start planning the annual Thanksgiving gluttony-fest.

So how can we enjoy the holiday food season without reaching January in the shape of a Butterball?

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We’d make life easier for ourselves—and more pleasant for everyone else—if we could learn to behave like respectful adults, even with the people whose ideology we abhor. But if you think American politics is nastier than ever, maybe you can take small comfort in knowing there’s nothing new under the sun.

Take, for instance, the 1910 elections in Maine. The state’s political machine had long been controlled by popular Sen. Eugene Hale, whose son Col. Frederick Hale was running for Congress. In a blistering editorial in his rural weekly, the Six Town Times, Charles Thornton Libby didn’t stop at criticizing the Hale politicians—he also took aim at the senator’s wife:

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