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Do you remember getting those daily emails from Groupon back a few years ago? I did too. Boy what a star the company was–the fastest growing company in the history of the US, I was told at a conference where their CFO spoke glowingly, bragging about the thousands of new […]
Ron Johnson is becoming the laughing stock of retail, as he continues his merry ways, destroying what was once one of the best performing stores in the US, JC Penney. Johnson became the Penney’s CEO last year, after years working for Apple Computer where he ran their retail stores. He […]
We watched the documentary “Food Inc” tonight and it resonated with both of us, thinking back on the dinner that preceded the showing of the film about America’s industrial food production system. I had stopped by M&M Green Valley Produce, a little farmstand and store on Rte 5 in South […]
This summer I took my companion to two places that to me are what summer is all about in the western Massachusetts. Like the great song by Jonathan Richman, “That Summer Feeling,” what is more summer than a Friday night picnic on the lawn at Tanglewood? Or a leisurely float […]
I read today’s Recorder and saw the Tag Sale Section. Then I thought about my friend Mike, who lost his job last month. It’s not bad at all–he cursed out his boss, they canned his ass, and now, well he seems lighter on his feet and happier! I asked him […]
You gotta hand it to Brad Shepard–he’s got a lot of nerve getting up there on stage and singing the songs we all try to croon in the shower live in front an audience. But he pulls it off–he loves the songs, knows the music, and has a fine voice. […]
I’m reading a book that gives me nightmares, yet it’s so compelling a story I have to keep reading. It’s an account of life in North Korea based on interviews with refugees who have defected to South Korea. It’s called Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Koreaby Barbara Demick. […]
The other day I was reading my newspaper at my girlfriend’s brother’s new house in Amherst when he turned to me and said, boldly, “you subscribe to that paper?” I answered yes, I get the Wall Street Journal mailed to me six days a week, and it’s one of my […]
A new book called “Death at Sea World” explains some of the mysteries behind the wrongly-named mammals known as killer whales, and I found some sympathy for these leviathans of the deep when I read a review in the WSJ by Jonathan V. Last. For instance, male orcas spend 75% […]
What the hell was that? Lucinda Williams brought her three piece band to the Calvin tonight. And some where along the way, they left a lot of what is great about her music on the tour bus. I can’t remember being more disappointed at a concert in recent years, it […]
The benefits of working for someone else sometimes become glaring and obvious…in fact as obvious as it was when I first decided back in 2005 that I was going to be self-employed from that day on. It’s just these challenges, coming at you like waves, and the sea of bills, […]
I asked for advice from my financial advisor, then I didn’t follow it. Today I bought a new car. Well, not a New new car, but a sweet looking 2006 Nissan Altima owned by a friendly little old lady who lives in my village. She said the police chief had […]