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Everyone knows that Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer — one last blowout weekend for trips to the beach or lake, cookouts, and carefree fun. So which holiday kicks off fall? Obviously, that’s National Talk Like a Pirate Day, which we celebrate on......

The punk philosopher Iggy Pop once said, “When it comes to art, money is an unimportant detail. It just happens to be a huge unimportant detail.” While we like to think of art as priceless, the sad reality is that with few exceptions, art is......

In the world of football, one family stands out among the rest: the Mannings. In tennis, it’s the Williamses. And on television, it’s the Kardashians, Jenners, and various C-list and D-list orbiters that make up the First Family of Reality TV. What many viewers don’t......

Most people who were born on January 17, 1922, have long since passed away. Of those who are still alive, few are still working in any capacity. And only one of them is still going strong after 80 years in show business. Her name is......

Millions of Americans who used to scoff at conspiracy theories (the moon landing was faked! Bigfoot is real!) have finally found one they can embrace. Autopsy results would have us believe the disgraced financier and pervert Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in a Manhattan jail cell.......

Ronald Reagan won the White House in 1980 partly by campaigning against incumbent Jimmy Carter and partly by campaigning against the 70% top income tax rate. Reagan preached a new gospel of “supply-side” economics, arguing that tax cuts would put money back in the pockets......

Ronald Reagan won the White House in 1980 partly by campaigning against incumbent Jimmy Carter and partly by campaigning against the 70% top income tax rate. Reagan preached a new gospel of “supply-side” economics, arguing that tax cuts would put money back in the pockets......

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and all through the house, not a client was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that more tax shelters soon would be there;   Dependents were nestled all snug in......

Would you believe that Spotify offers over a million Christmas songs? There’s something for every taste. The best of them, like Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti’s magnificent “O Holy Night,” are sublime evocations that lift the human spirit. Some, like Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,”......

Coronavirus has millions of Americans rethinking where they choose to live, especially crowded cities. Back in February and March, New Yorkers led the charge, fleeing the petri dish that Manhattan had become to vacation homes in places like the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard. Silicon Valley......

In 1979, China launched what would become the world’s toughest population control measure, the “one-child policy.” Families with just one child got rewarded with a “one-child glory certificate” and five yuan per month (about as exciting as a stack of Wendy’s coupons). There were always......

Forty years ago this weekend, Orion Pictures released a comedy producers pitched as “Animal House on a golf course.” The movie featured a scrappy bunch of misfit locals battling a group of rich snobs played by ad-libbing comedy legends. And while reviews were underwhelming, it went......

Fifty-five years ago, NBC debuted a new series that producer Gene Rodenberry called “a Western in outer space — a so-called Wagon Train to the stars.” Star Trek starred a journeyman Canadian actor named William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, helming a crew of comically diverse stereotypes (the......

A century ago, America was “a nation of shopkeepers.” Beginning in the 1950s, we became a nation of malls. Today, we’re a nation of big-box stores. Walmart, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Home Depot have stomped their way across our landscapes like so many......

This week’s story takes us to Verkhoyansk, a frozen flyspeck of a town with 1,300 shivering souls deep inside Siberia, six miles from the Arctic Circle. The local delicacy is a version of a Russian favorite called pelmeni: minced reindeer fat rolled in a thin dough,......

In 2004, Stephanie Meyer sparked a bona fide cultural phenomenon with her debut novel, Twilight, recounting the romance between 17-year-old schoolgirl Bella Swan and 109-year-old “vegetarian” vampire Edward Cullen. (He only drinks animal blood, not human.) The story spawned four books, five movies (because you’ve gotta......

Fifty years ago, a dairy farmer named Max Yasgur thought it would be a rockin’ idea to rent his field to a bunch of kids who wanted to throw a concert. From August 15-17, 400,000 hippies, peaceniks, and plain old music fans converged on the......

Back in 2000, a scrappy little startup named Netflix was losing millions every month on their business renting DVDs online, mailing them to subscribers through something called the “Post Office.” (Remember them?) The founders had the bright idea to sell their company to Blockbuster video......

It’s 2020, and yet in today’s Disneyfied America, little girls still dream of becoming princesses. Really, what’s not to like about it? You get all the pomp and circumstance of the royal court without the inconvenient stress of actually running the country. You get to......

Chances are good that sometime soon, you’ll find yourself in front of a football game. Love it or loathe it, from now through early 2020, the game will dominate the airwaves, to the point where, if you can’t sleep at 4AM, you can find an......

Next week brings us the most quintessentially American of all holidays. It’s the one we wait for all year, the one that truly captures those ideals that bind us together as a nation, and the one that bridges the cultural and political gaps that threaten......

One of the delights of living in America is the variety of local delicacies that different places champion as their own. Maine’s lobster rolls serve up a briny mouthful of golden summer tucked into a lightly-toasted bun. Wisconsin is home to amazing cheeses: milk’s bid......

Reddit’s r/relationships forum is one of the internet’s favorite soap operas. Posters sum up their angst in a snappy shorthand: “I (22M) have fallen in love with the woman I serve (21F). I left to seek my fortune. But now she thinks I’m dead so......

Thirty-five years ago, cartoonist Bill Watterson published the very first “Calvin and Hobbes” strip. Calvin, an irrepressible six-year-old who’s surely destined for a therapist’s couch or an orange jumpsuit (or both), tells his dad he’s off to check his tiger trap: “I rigged a tuna......

“Burning Man” is a celebration of creativity and community that pops up for nine days every year before Labor Day in the Nevada desert. (Turn right at Reno, go about 100 miles, and when it looks like you’re actually driving on the moon, you’re there.)......

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan quipped that the government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases, including, “If it moves, tax it.” Well, Uncle Sam is already chasing income, payrolls, corporations, gifts, estates, imports, and gasoline and alcohol sales.......

Last week, we talked about one of Uncle Sam’s priciest problems. Specifically, the current lineup of taxes on income, payrolls, corporations, gifts, estates, imports, and gas and alcohol sales isn’t getting the job done. We’re collecting almost $12 billion/day, and we’re still $29 trillion in......

Let’s say you need someone to help you do something really important. Would you settle for someone who just Googled it? Would you look for someone with the right professional license? Or would you hold out for the guy who literally wrote the book on......

Roughly 180 million miles into space, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, astronomers have found millions of asteroids — solid rocks that failed to form a planet. Most of the time, those asteroids coexist quite peacefully with earth. However, occasionally one drops out of......

Most Americans would agree that capitalism is the greatest wealth creation engine the world has ever known. But it’s hard to argue that capitalism distributes its rewards equally, and today’s “winner take all” economy is concentrating wealth beyond Gilded Age levels. Forget about that top......

When talented musicians join forces, they epitomize Aristotle’s maxim: “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Collaboration is the essence of music, and even the most technically proficient soloists benefit from an ensemble framing and highlighting their skills. You can’t whistle a......

Back before Covid-19 shuttered theaters, courtroom dramas were a cinema staple. In Twelve Angry Men, Henry Fonda shines as Juror 8, trying to convince his fellow jurors the case they were considering wasn’t so clear-cut. In A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise proves he could handle the truth while baiting Jack......

People have loved advice columns, in print and elsewhere, since Daniel Defoe launched the “Scandalous Club” back in 1704. Since then, we’ve lobbed questions to Abby, Ann, Polly, Prudence, Miss Manners, Dr. Phil, Dr. Ruth, Dr. Drew, Dr. Laura, and even Frasier Crane. (“I’m listening.”)......

People have loved advice columns, in print and elsewhere, since Daniel Defoe launched the “Scandalous Club” back in 1704. Since then, we’ve lobbed questions to Abby, Ann, Polly, Prudence, Miss Manners, Dr. Phil, Dr. Ruth, Dr. Drew, Dr. Laura, and even Frasier Crane. (“I’m listening.”)......

On Monday, Veterans Day commemorated those brave and selfless Americans who’ve served in our military. We honor them with History Channel specials, parades, and one-day-only sales on chicken sandwiches and big-screen TVs. Occasionally, we even let the occasion guilt us into trying to do a......

In 1886, a chemist named John Pemberton concocted a sweet, carbonated “brain and nerve tonic” made with coca leaves and cola nuts. Six years later, he sold his recipe for $2,300 to the druggist Asa Candler, who spun it into multinational gold. While the current......

In 1886, a chemist named John Pemberton concocted a sweet, carbonated “brain and nerve tonic” made with coca leaves and cola nuts. Six years later, he sold his recipe for $2,300 to the druggist Asa Candler, who spun it into multinational gold. While the current......

Fifteen months of COVID-19 have changed the face of employment here in America. The pandemic wiped out 20 million jobs, yet employers are struggling to hire while employees reevaluate their post-pandemic plans. Can you spin your old position into a work-from-home opportunity? Should you take......

American law schools sponsor over 200 law reviews: dense collections of grim, wooden prose, groaning with footnotes. (Chief Justice John Roberts once said “Pick up a copy of any law review that you see, and the first article is likely to be, you know, the......

Between 1983 and 1985, mobster Whitey Bulger whacked three people and buried them under the dirt-floor basement of a house in Boston’s working-class “Southie” neighborhood. Bulger, an FBI informant who inspired Jack Nicholson’s character in The Departed, vanished after his handler tipped him off that he......

The French newspaper Le Monde called it “the robbery of the century.” So what was it? A Mission Impossible-style crew of balaclava-wearing acrobats bypassing sophisticated alarms to burgle a museum or gallery? Or maybe it looked like one of those “Oceans” movies: a crack team of hardened specialists......

Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas, who died last this month, played nearly every role in his career: actor, director, producer, and writer. He was born before the first “talkie” hit theaters. He grew up one of seven children in an impoverished home. Then he worked his......

We’ve talked here a time or two about how taxes factor into every financial choice you make. Whether you’re selling a business, exercising stock options, or just treating yourself to a summer sundae at the neighborhood soft serve, you’ll find a government with its hand......

America has always been a land of opportunity, and there are many paths to fame and fortune. If you’re physically gifted, consider professional sports. If you’re blessed with good looks, Hollywood beckons. If you’re born with the gift of gab, consider used cars (or politics).......

There’s a saying, usually attributed to Lenin, that “nothing can happen for decades, then decades happen in weeks.” These last few weeks certainly feel like decades happening in weeks. The election, the coronavirus surge, and especially the violence in Washington have combined to produce a......

Last week, hell broke loose on Wall Street as an online flash mob of mostly-rookie traders took on the hedge fund elite — and won. Their target: GameStop (GME), a struggling retailer selling used video games, often out of shabby strip centers surrounded by check-cashing......

In 1787, the founding fathers gathered in Philadelphia to fix the weak Articles of Confederation, and wound up adopting the first written national constitution on earth. (“A republic, if you can keep it,” Ben Franklin said. The jury’s still out.) The framers sought to achieve......

Americans love holidays — so much that if we see a blank spot on the calendar, someone is ready to fill it. Usually, it’s someone with something to sell: would it shock you to learn that something called the National Retail Federation was behind Cyber......

People have always aspired to “make the grade” and take their place on the lists of the world’s most famous and accomplished people. A generation ago, business executives and politicians aimed for Who’s Who in America, while athletes aimed for the Hall of Fame and entertainers......

In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. Ever since then, Americans have spent that day destroying Mom’s kitchen in the name of breakfast in bed, tramping through her garden in the name of bringing her flowers,......

Walk into any suburban supermarket, and you’ll find entire aisles of food you wouldn’t have seen when you were a kid. What the heck is quinoa, anyway? Who invented kombucha? And if mom had served kale, you might have appreciated broccoli more. But there’s one......

Over the years, we’ve written a fair number of stories about frustrated taxpayers choosing to cut their bill the old-fashioned way: by cheating. In today’s America, which seems more divided than at any time since the Civil War, tax cheats truly cut across all lines......

Parenting is full of special moments that create lifelong memories. Your heart bursts in joy as you watch them take their first steps, ride their first bike, and bring home their first report card. When they get a little older, there’s the pride you feel......

Time to play a word association game: what jumps into your mind when you hear the word “Canada”? If you’re like most Americans, it’s ice hockey or curling. Maybe it’s poutine, that irresistibly savory shotgun marriage of french fries smothered in cheese curds, and gravy......

After eighteen long and grueling weeks, the NFL is finally into the playoffs. The Cincinnati Bengals proved they could finally win a playoff game after 31 years. The Buffalo Bills proved that the Patriots without Tom Brady are just another football team. And the Tampa......

March 2 marks the birthday of America’s favorite self-help author, Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel. Seuss died in 1991 with an estimated net worth of $75 million, so he knew a thing or two about paying tax. But archivists recently discovered a file of unpublished manuscripts......

  The much-anticipated 2020 Tokyo Olympics have come and gone. As usual, the quadrennial celebration of sport included a few surprises. For starters, there were no spectators in the audience. Gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from several marquee events with a case of the “twisties,” which......

Fifty years ago this weekend, in what many people consider the crowning accomplishment in all of human history, astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon. Eight years earlier, President Kennedy had challenged the nation, before the end of the decade, to land a man......

            Mary Lou Dobbs Executive Benefit Strategies, Inc. 920 Candelaria Northwest Albuquerque NM 87107 505-343-0617 Office 505-688-6703 Mobile 505-265-8513 Fax www.ebstrategies.com     Our “Capital Transfer Strategy” program neutralizes federal or capital gains taxes.   Increase Personal Wealth Increase Spendable Income Ornithology   Every......

To paraphrase Tolstoy, “All honest taxpayers are alike; every dishonest taxpayer is dishonest in his own way.” But what happens when a dishonest taxpayer is dishonest in every way? Turn on your speakers and cue the theme from Cops while you enjoy this week’s story.   Philip Pesin earned a......

To paraphrase Tolstoy, “All honest taxpayers are alike; every dishonest taxpayer is dishonest in his own way.” But what happens when a dishonest taxpayer is dishonest in every way? Turn on your speakers and cue the theme from Cops while you enjoy this week’s story.   Philip Pesin earned a......

Back in 1997, Delaware Senator Bill Roth sponsored a new kind of retirement savings account with a back-end benefit. In contrast to traditional IRAs, which let you deduct your contributions and defer tax until you pull money out, the Roth IRA lets you contribute after-tax......

Four years ago, a consortium of European journalists broke a story based on 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The exposé detailed how the firm’s clients across the world used offshore shell companies to hide assets and evade taxes. (Remember,......

In 2017, country singer Luke Bryan scored a #1 hit with “Most People Are Good.” Certainly, most people consider themselves good. Of course, “illusory superiority bias” (also known as the “better than average” effect) means most of us think we’re better than we really are at......

The Time: July 25, 1965. The Place: The Newport Folk Festival. Master of Ceremonies Peter Yarrow steps out to introduce the singer-songwriter sensation Bob Dylan. Festival organizers are perplexed as they watch his crew setting up heavy equipment. Then Dylan takes the stage to launch......

October is chock-full of obscure holidays and commemorations. October 3 is National Boyfriend Day. October 15 — the real personal tax filing deadline — is National Grouch Day. (Coincidence? We think not.) October 19 serves up National Seafood Bisque Day (which sounds a lot tastier than October......

Odds are good that if you hear the words “Mike Tyson” and “money,” you think of the huge purses ($685 million!) that Iron Mike won, then squandered, in his colorful career. Tyson, who surely could have benefited from reading a Dave Ramsey book, was legendary......

Fifty years ago on June 30, Paramount Pictures released an enchanting spun-sugar delight of a movie that remains a classic. Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory features Gene Wilder as the reclusive confectioner who hides five Golden Tickets in his candy bars and promises the finders a......

2021 is almost over — a dank, foul, depressing funhouse mirror of 2020 — and for most of us, it can’t end too soon. COVID is still here, taunting us with new mutations every time we finally think we’ve turned the corner. Americans still hate......

Taxes were in the news this Memorial Day weekend: the new administration leaked word that the higher capital gains taxes included in their American Families Plan would be retroactive to April when they first rolled out the bill. That’s drawn predictable fire from the usual......

The men and women who write our nation’s tax laws aren’t known for their sartorial style. Ohio Representative James Traficant, who served 17 years in the people’s House before serving seven years in the “big” house, raised eyebrows with an occasional denim suit. (We’re pretty......

One April day, in 1564/ (We know the month, but sadly not the date)/The Bard the world would someday all adore/Was born to write the plays we’d see as great./   Today we think of Shakespeare’s clever quatrains./Yet he was so much more than just......

Back in 1788, George Washington turned down his chance to become King of the new United States of America. Maybe that’s why the closest thing we have to a royal family right now — at least, as far as supermarket tabloids are concerned — is......

This time of year, millions of Americans celebrate Easter and Passover, the holiest days of their faith. But the calendar is loaded with plenty of “Hallmark holidays,” too, usually invented by companies looking to sell something. There’s Sweetest Day, invented by greeting card companies to......

Ambitious musicians have always looked for ways to monetize their name and fame. Sometimes the results fall short of a mic drop — usually half-baked restaurant “concepts.” (Remember Kenny Rogers Roasters?) But today’s artists — especially in the rap community — can be just as......

It’s not just a new year, folks. 2020 is finally . . . finally . . . finally over! While most of us were perfectly happy to see it in with a whimper instead of the usual bang, we’re all looking forward to the day when murder......

Here in our United States, our government is sliced and diced between Uncle Sam, 50 states, 3,141 counties, and 89,000-odd cities, towns, and villages. You would think that 244 years of independence, along with a dollop of Yankee ingenuity, would produce a crisp, streamlined system......

Memorial Day weekend is fading in the rearview mirror, and we’ve ventured outside to commemorate those who gave their lives in service to their country. Summer is as officially “open for business” as it can be in this year of coronavirus. But there’s a lesser-known......

Scientists recently announced finding a fossilized horseshoe crab brain from 310 million years ago. As the New York Times reported, “Siderite, an iron carbonate mineral, accumulated rapidly around the dead creature’s body, forming a mold. With time, as the soft tissue decayed, a white-colored clay mineral called......

Despite the 2020 malaise, holiday season is in full swing, and we expect you’re on your best behavior to make Santa’s nice list. But there’s one famous guy who works harder than anyone else to be naughty this time of year, even in 2020 —......

Colleges looking to compete for students have added new fields like cybersecurity, political campaign management, and even beer fermentation. (That last one seems a bit indulgent, given how many college students pursue rigorous self-study programs in malt beverages with no promise of academic credit at......

Colleges looking to compete for students have added new fields like cybersecurity, political campaign management, and even beer fermentation. (That last one seems a bit indulgent, given how many college students pursue rigorous self-study programs in malt beverages with no promise of academic credit at......

“If you are truly serious about preparing your child for the future, don’t teach him to subtract — teach him to deduct.” Fran Lebowitz   Here in the United States, we spend about $1.3 trillion on education, including early childhood programs, K-12th grade, the whole......

Here in the United States, we spend a lot of time arguing about income taxes . . . who should pay, how they should pay, and how much they should pay. Right now, the average American forks over 13.5% of their income in individual income......

Back in The Good Old Days, fame was something you earned by throwing a ball, selling a million records, lighting up a cinema screen, or landing on the moon. Then Paris Hilton decided she wanted to be famous without all that bother. So, armed with little more......

Back in The Good Old Days, fame was something you earned by throwing a ball, selling a million records, lighting up a cinema screen, or landing on the moon. Then Paris Hilton decided she wanted to be famous without all that bother. So, armed with little more......

Back in The Good Old Days, fame was something you earned by throwing a ball, selling a million records, lighting up a cinema screen, or landing on the moon. Then Paris Hilton decided she wanted to be famous without all that bother. So, armed with little more......

Back in 1621, a group of hardy Pilgrims sat down for a three-day festival of thanksgiving to celebrate surviving plague, starvation, cold, scurvy, Indian attack, and all the other obstacles that made life in the “new world” so delightful. They feasted on game birds, flint......

Captains of industry like John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and JP Morgan created enormous fortunes before dying and passing their wealth to their heirs. A century later, most of that money is so old it’s gone, vanished into the spray of mansions, parties, and philanthropy......

Back in the 1980s, sharp-eyed visitors to New York’s Greenwich Village might have spotted a disheveled man wandering the streets in pajamas, a bathrobe, and slippers. Sometimes he mumbled to himself. Other times, he talked to parking meters. Who was this sad, strange figure, they......

Coronavirus has turned millions of Americans who used to laugh at the doomsday preppers on National Geographic into converts. Your neighborhood supermarket is working overtime to keep shelves stocked as panicked shoppers rush to settle in for stay-at-home orders. And the first item to disappear......

Today’s high-tech economy is all about reinvention. We’ve got Tesla reinventing cars, Amazon reinventing delivery, and WeWork turning offices into a “state of consciousness.” (Shhh, don’t tell Michael Scott.) We’ve also got Bitcoin and other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies trying to reinvent money. Never mind that most......

This is a story about a boy, a dream, a voice, and a legend. It has no beginning or end, but opens under the boundless California sky on a June afternoon in 2009. There’s an ambulance speeding down the mansion-lined streets of LA’s “Platinum Triangle.”......

In 1895, H.G. Wells launched his sci-fi career with a tale about a Victorian gentleman who travels to Earth in the year 802,701AD. The “Time Traveler” discovers that humanity has evolved into two different species: the Eloi, elfin descendants of the upper-classes, and the Morlocks,......

Last week, we wrote about the sad fate faced by astronauts preparing for a brave new world of space commerce. Specifically, they’re fated to wind up paying the same tax bills on their interplanetary income as they do on the earthbound work they do today.......

2020 was a tough year all around. Coronavirus cast a pall over every aspect of life. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, and the stock market dropped 26% in just four days. Murder hornets showed up, and the Tiger King shot to national celebrity. Is......

Turn the dial on the Wayback Machine to 1849, and join us in California, where “there’s gold in them thar hills!” Two kinds of people are getting fabulously rich. Obviously, there are the prospectors, grabbing their shovels and racing for the latest strike. Then there......

Prussian Minister Otto von Bismarck once said that laws are like sausages: it’s better not to see them being made. Frankly, that comparison is unfair to sausage makers. When was the last time a kitchen full of lawmakers cooked up something as tasty as a......

Prussian Minister Otto von Bismarck once said that laws are like sausages: it’s better not to see them being made. Frankly, that comparison is unfair to sausage makers. When was the last time a kitchen full of lawmakers cooked up something as tasty as a......

Prussian Minister Otto von Bismarck once said that laws are like sausages: it’s better not to see them being made. Frankly, that comparison is unfair to sausage makers. When was the last time a kitchen full of lawmakers cooked up something as tasty as a......

It’s a common misconception that accounting and taxes are all about numbers. Looking at a balance sheet or a tax return, it’s an easy mistake to make. Just look at all those numbers in all those boxes! In reality, though, it’s not about numbers, and......

In 1996, two ambitious doctors named Raymond and Mortimer Sackler rolled out an extended-release painkiller called OxyContin. The drug was a hit, delivering a warm glow of relief for millions of Americans. And their company, Purdue Pharmaceutical, made the Sacklers billionaires. The family used part......

Moviegoers the past few years could be forgiven for thinking comic books had taken over Hollywood. So much of the “sophisticated adult drama” that grownups used to see in theaters has migrated to streaming video, that it seems suburban multiplexes are reserved for Batman, Superman,......

Twenty years ago, sci-fi fans geeked out to a new thriller called  The Matrix following a dystopian vein established in  Blade Runner,  Total Recall, and  The Terminator. It starred Keanu Reeves as “Neo” and Laurence Fishburne as “Morpheus”: freedom fighters in a world where machines have trapped humanity in a......

Coronavirus has upended nearly every aspect of American life, including of course sports. First was the chaos of interrupting leagues mid-season with no idea when, or if, they would ever return. Next was the oddity of playing games in arenas filled with cardboard cutouts of fans......

Once upon a time, the number 13 bragged “I’m the unluckiest number of all!” Then 666 came along and said, “oh no, I’m worse.” Then 2020 arrived and said “hold my beer.” Between the coronavirus, the murder hornets, the hurricanes, the wildfires, and the ugliest presidential election......

In China, it’s a curse to say “may you live in interesting times.” If that’s so, 2020 is surely cursed. It all started with coronavirus in January or thereabouts. April brought the murder hornets to Washington State. (They might still be only in Washington, but......

Writing a funny tax column every week, and keeping it as consistently brilliant as we do, is actually harder than it looks. (Less glamorous, too.) Sometimes there just isn’t an obviously fun story to cover. What do we write about in a week with no......

Sunday night, Paramount+ aired the season four finale of their hit drama Yellowstone. (No spoilers!) The show follows the Dutton family, sixth-generation heirs to the largest contiguous ranch in the United States, as they fight to defend their legacy. On one side, greedy developers want to......

Back in the early 1880s, American workers toiled as much as 12 hours per day at the coal mine or the bobbin factory. Peter J. McGuire, co-founder of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, proposed a parade followed by a picnic for......

Back in the early 1880s, American workers toiled as much as 12 hours per day at the coal mine or the bobbin factory. Peter J. McGuire, co-founder of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, proposed a parade followed by a picnic for......

Sportsball fans who already miss NFL action have just weeks to wait until baseball throws out the first pitch on March 26. While the Astros cheating scandal dominates baseball news, teams across the league are furiously shuffling rosters in hopes of coming up with the......

The world of law enforcement lost a pioneer last week with the death of Gerald Shur. As a young prosecutor targeting what one member described as “a certain Italian-American subculture,” he realized his informants would be more likely to testify on Monday morning if they......

“If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again.” That was Thomas Edison’s motto — and it’s a good thing, considering it took him 10,000 tries to perfect the incandescent light bulb. The Jedi Master Yoda might disagree (“Do, or do not. There is no......