387 How the media sees productivity gains

Over at Tech Central Station, Arnold Kling, on July 12 comments on rising productivity, noting that President Bush hasn’t taken the credit, nor should he, because it takes years for trends and policies to shake out.

“The most likely explanation for the faster productivity growth of recent years is the gradual diffusion and exploitation of computer technology . . . And [It is not usually news because] it takes years for changes in productivity trends to manifest themselves, one quarter's data release is not terribly significant.” And he makes a referral to Virginia Postrel who has written on "operations research."

The news is also ignored because it is positive, he concludes. “The media always prefer economic stories which show America going to hell in a handbasket. In the 1970's, we were supposedly running out of oil. In the 1980's, we were being beaten by Japan. More recently, the media have tried to make the outsourcing phenomenon carry the narrative for the story of gloom and despair. . . the current Administration is unpopular with the media. As much as the media is averse to reporting good news, I think that productivity would receive greater coverage if the big gains were taking place on a Democratic President's watch. The upbeat productivity data would "fit" the story of competent Democratic stewardship of the economy. But it would spoil the narrative of the Bush Administration as bumbling and Hoover-esque to point out that the most fundamental measure of our economic strength is shooting through the roof.”

The only two ads for Kerry I see here in Lakeside are on outsourcing jobs. Neither makes much sense, but they have a lot of appeal for blaming Bush for things he probably has no control over. Especially the ABB crowd.

386 Developing a reading plan for the education I didn't have

I'm currently reading a book recommended on Sherry's blog , The well-educated mind, a guide to the classical education you never had, by Susan Wise Bauer, about reading with a plan. She recommends that in having or developing a serious reading plan that one not look at e-mail first--or you'll never get around to it. Agreed. Turning on the computer is a huge time waster. She has other good advice.

1. Set a time for self-education.
2. Start short--30 minutes is better than 2 hours to begin.
3. Schedule 4 days instead of 7.
4. Guard your reading time--resist immediate gratification (good advice on any effort).
5. Start now--schedule 4 weekly reading periods of 30 minutes.

She recommends a method of reading that I’ve actually been using the last 5 years, but thought I was doing it because I can’t remember anything from day to day. She suggests keeping a notebook--sort of a commonplace book--including not only quotes, but summaries and original thoughts on what you’re reading.

I’ve discovered that the notebook and pencil (occasionally ball point) have to feel right too. Since I read early with my coffee at the coffee shop, I am also following her advice to read early rather than later in the day.

Two of my suspicions--that I read too slowly and that my vocabulary is weak--she shoots down as excuses not to read more difficult, deep titles. She includes a brief test which I passed with no trouble. Darn. I have no excuse, not even lack of time, since she wants you to start with 30 minutes a day.

Her list of “great books” is daunting, however. She suggests reading chronologically, regardless of topic, when reading for the well-educated mind. I’d like to skip Bunyun, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, the only novelists on the list I’ve read.

Novels:
Don Quixote
Pilgrim’s Progress
Gulliver’s Travels
Pride and Prejudice
Oliver Twist
Jane Eyre
Scarlett Letter
Moby Dick (which she has attempted 7 times, I think)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (I read the comic book)
Madame Bovary
Crime and Punishment
Anna Karenina
Return of the Native
Portrait of a lady
Huckleberry Finn
Red Badge of Courage
Heart of Darkness
House of Mirth
Great Gatsby
Mrs. Dalloway
The Trial
Native Son
The Stranger
1984
Invisible Man
Seize the day
One hundred years of solitude
If on a winter’s night a traveler
Song of Solomon (Morrison)
White Noise
Possession

And she wants them read in this order. “When you read chronologically, you reunite 2 fields that should never have been separated in the fir place: history and literature.”

Also, she doesn’t want you to read the preface unless the author has written it, so you form your own conclusions. Also, don’t read a critical or annotated edition for the same reason.

She promises to hold my hand through the whole thing. But I think I will be 85.

385 Do Libraries Have Obligations to the Rich?

I asked this question over at LISNews.com, but no one suggested a referral or a link. Are there any library documents out there on the responsibilities or obligations of librarians to serve the rich?

In this country, we have more rich than poor, and perhaps some of the rich can thank libraries (and probably do through endowments and certainly through their real estate taxes and help with bond issues) for their good fortune.

When I was at Ohio State, my library had the largest endowment of any of the dept. libraries. Before he died, no one knew the donor had money, and no one knew he had a soft spot for the veterinary library. So no one cultivated or recruited him--which was my good fortune, incidentally.

Just what are libraries' responsibilities to the rich, if they really are supposed to serve all? Wouldn't the poor be served best if the rich were well taken care of? And just who is rich and what is a luxury? Thirty years ago, I couldn't afford a microwave or a VCR. Rich people buying them soon made them affordable for me. The last microwave I bought was about $49 and the new VCR under $50.

Check out this fairy tale. It tells of a man who wished the rich would lose all their luxuries, and got his wish much to the disruption of his own life.

384 Friends of the Hotel Lakeside Sale

After taking my 3 paintings to the train station to check them in for the upcoming art show, I stopped at the sale in South Auditorium. Lakesiders donate their cast-offs and attic treasures for the sale--even turn around and then pay $5 for an early bird sticker to get in before the crowds to see what every one else has donated. The Friends use the proceeds to upgrade the rooms at the hotel, and many are quite lovely. The trinkets, trash and treasures are laid out on long tables--cookie tins, table lamps, Christmas decorations, 8-track tapes, old toasters, ancient microwaves, bedspreads faded with two-decade-old color schemes, black and white TVs, an occasional small computer, and hand-made crafts lovingly presented to the reluctant host.

There was a time when the cottages were full of the outdated and less than perfect--I know well, having been a renter for 13 years before purchasing a cottage. We would eat out a lot then because I was reluctant to use the kitchen utensils in some of the rental cottages. But now many of the cottages, even some rentals, could be photographed for Architectural Digest or Home.

When the Archives had its fund raising yard sale on Memorial Day, I noticed a coffee table size book on photographs of WWI. It was starting to rain and it was getting wet, but no one moved it. I think it was maybe $5.00. Yesterday I saw it in a local antique store for $45.00. So there are bargains to be had in these old cast-offs if you know what to look for.

My friends from art class, Elaine and Elaine, drove up for the day to drop off their paintings. We had a lovely lunch at the Abigail and then walked along the lake front back to the cottage. Elaine has been in the show before, but Elaine had never been here, and we had a good time showing her the 19th century cottages and the many homes my husband has improved as the local architect.

After Elaine and Elaine left, my husband's former partner, Andy, pulled in the drive-way. He has a sailboat parked over at Port Clinton. He'd just entered something in the show, and was stopping by before he drove to Marblehead to attend Mass.

Tonight's program is supposed to be really good--a Judy and Liza impersonator duo--and both are women!

383 Cutting labor costs through innovation

Not all jobs lost are outsourced overseas, Mr. Kerry (who seems a bit naive about this, in my opinion). Some become victims of innovation. At Meijer’s the other day I noticed carousels of plastic bags immediately behind the cashiers have taken the place of baggers, most of whom were either new immigrants who spoke little English, mentally or physically challenged, or retirees from other jobs. Most of the baggers have probably been put to work in other places in the store like stocking shelves if they have the skills to read and use small computers, but I know some have been let go. It will be hard for people with no communication skills to find other work.

There are also self-check out stalls in most stores now, (also in some libraries) but I don’t see that reducing labor costs much, since a staff person needs to be near by to assist, but it speeds things up for people with a few items. Barcodes--now 30 years old--put a lot of clerks into other jobs and moved customers through lines faster--saving billions a year for retailers in labor costs. And barcodes will probably be replaced by RFIDs.

382 Noted in passing at the Lake

On Rt. 4 just south of the intersection with Rt. 2, someone, a woman I hope, has a snazzy pickup truck. It is bright fuscia pink with a lavender hood and grill.

At the coffee shop, the deli-mail continues as two customers leave notes for each other on the receipts and attach to a paper cup:

“Your girl friend will have to let you out more & earlier.”

“She don’t send me out after milk and bread anymore.”

We’ve moved the cedar chest out of the bedroom on to the porch, thanks to a neighbor’s help. He will get the wooden box we had in that spot for his grandchildren’s toys. Both came with the house--as did the helpful neighbor--when we bought it in 1988. I estimate the cedar chest is from the 1920s or 1930s, but the box may be much older. The previous owner covered it with contact paper, and restoring the box looked like too much work to me. We’re trying to make room for both of us to be able to paint without tying up the kitchen table. 750 sq. ft. is not a large house.

John McCutcheon performed his popular and up-dated folk singing and humor. He was born in Wisconsin, educated in Minnesota and now lives in Virginia. He tells funny stories--and he is often the butt of the joke. He played banjo, guitar, dulcimer and for an encore, played his body by slapping. Some of his songs are pointed and political--although he was careful, it being Lakeside. I did see a few people get up and leave after his nasty Ashcroft song, but some loved it. I did manage to stay for the entire performance.

381 The Little People

Michelle Malkin has an article revealing the names of some of the big donors to the Democratic war chest for Kerry's campaign in her July 7 column. I don't have a problem with people contributing to the party of their choice, but I have wondered why the Democrats claim to be the party of the little people. We have two rich, white guys, graduates of Yale, running for President. They are both raising an obscene amount of money so they can be President of the richest country in the world.

A very tiny percentage of Americans are really rich, and very few are desperately poor. We're changing quintiles again. We were in the bottom 20% in the early 1960s, along with most students living in apartments on the fringes of the University of Illinois. Then we rose to the top during our peak earning years, as a librarian and an architect with grown children (DINKS), and will be settling comfortably at the bottom next year. I don't want any candidate making appalling ignorant remarks or feeling sorry for me.

380 Totally decadent

I picked up a recipe insert from the Peninsula News. It had the usual high calorie, high fat summer grill stuff--Easy Peasy Potato Wedges, Sweet Baby Ribs, Pumpkin Fluff Dip, and so on. But this one really set my teeth on edge and answered for all time, why Americans are so overweight:

Plastic Bag Fudge
1/3 cup semi-sweet cocoa
3 oz. cream cheese
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1. Place all ingredients in gallon-sized zipper plastic bag.
2. Squish ingredients until well mixed. As ingredients mix together, fudge will set up to a stiff icing texture.
3. Pass bag around with spoons and eat.

379 Excellent programs

In 1893, my grandmother went to the World’s Fair in Chicago with her parents. According to what I learned last night at Hoover Auditorium in Lakeside, “rag time” which had been around for many years, first was called that during the World's Fair for having a “ragged” time. I doubt that Grandfather David let his 17 year old daughter near any performers playing the devil’s music.

The program last night was Bob Milne, a piano player of rag time, boogie woogie and southern gospel. He played a solid two hours, and received wildly enthusiastic applause. He only paused long enough to provide the audience some history and a few jokes. It seems that two weeks ago he played for a private party in their home in Kennebunkport, named George and Barbara. And in a few weeks, he’ll be meeting for the first time another pianist, Clint Eastwood, and they’ll play some duets.

On Saturday evening a group I’d never heard of 1910 Fruitgum Factory performed. I must have been too busy raising babies, because they were popular in the late 1960s and I didn’t remember any of their “hits.” But many of the boomers in the audience did, and when the lead singer suggested there was room up front or in the aisles to dance, about a hundred people, adults and little kids, went forward to groove and swing. It was fun to see them having such a good time--whole families dancing together, little children on their dad’s shoulders, and grandmas rocking and bopping, showing the grandkids how they did it in the 60s.

On Friday evening we had a Beatles imitator group, called Back Beat a Tribute. John, Paul, George and Ringo. This is a very popular program (although doesn‘t bring in as many as the Elvis imitator), again with the boomers. They did put on a solid 3 hour show with no intermission (I only lasted about 15 minutes). What I remember about the Beatles is how shocked and horrified parents were with their hair and music, and am always surprised at how tame they seem now.

378 Helpful neighbor

My neighbor set me up with a password so I can use my wireless card with his router. I might look a bit odd sitting on the back porch straddling a bench, but you have to go with what is easy. I could sit on the front porch, but the connection is weaker. Then I tried webmail and was able to both send and receive e-mail. Before, I was receiving but not sending. My Collecting My Thoughts doesn't seem to be working well, and many times I can't load it.

378 Thoughts on July 4

The first thing you notice about these workers is that they are young and in good physical condition; the second is that they speak to each other in another language. They are Slovakian students here on the peninsula on special visas that allow them to work during the summer at jobs that used to be filled by American college students.

Because I leave the grounds of Lakeside early in the morning to get coffee, I sometimes pass bicyclists in the dim dawn light. Several years ago when I noticed this I thought maybe they were athletes out preparing for a summer race. But it was just the Slovakian students on their way to work in the tourist industry--restaurants, motels, entertainment sites. They rent a cottage or two, buy some bikes and don’t seem to mind a 20 or 30 minute ride to work each day at dawn and sunset. Very few American youngsters would attempt this--it is a narrow, busy highway, and besides, it requires some athletic skill to ride a bike to work and then put in a full shift on your feet serving others.

Today I was a bit early, so I stopped at McDonald’s instead of Bassett’s where the coffee shop doesn’t open until 6:30. I heard the kitchen help speaking loudly to one of the counter people with many gestures. At first I thought she might be hearing impaired, but then realized that she was foreign, and the Americans were simply speaking loudly, instead of clearly. Then I heard her and 2 other counter staff speaking a Slavic language, and since we have Slovakians working in Lakeside, I assumed these young women were also from Slovakia. When I got a refill, I noticed their name tags--Maria, Petra, and Martina. Martina, who probably had the best English, took the orders at the window drive-thru and Maria and Petra filled the sacks. Soon three tall, slender young men arrived, perspiring heavily, wearing shorts and back packs, and walked behind the counter to the back room and reappeared wearing uniforms--they were working the kitchen.

As I got up to leave I spoke to one of the assistant managers and asked her if they were Slovakian students here on a work visa. She said yes, and she wished they had more of them. She also told me that the 3 women also worked at Lakeside in the evening, and that at least one of the young men had 4 jobs. I asked her about transportation, and she said sometimes they pooled their money and bought a car and shared it for the summer, but usually rode bikes and shared housing. I asked her some other questions about the visas, to which she claimed no knowledge, but I think she was beginning to be suspicious that I was checking up on them, and she didn’t want to lose her workers.

These handsome, athletic 20-somethings aren’t immigrants, they’re “guest workers” as the Europeans might say, but they aren’t afraid to work, and even at minimum wage jobs find housing, transportation and ways to get around language barriers. Here on the peninsula they are cleaning hotel rooms, tending yards and gardens, serving food and clerking. They certainly look more fit and happier to be working than American young people.

Paychecks were passed out while I was there, and I heard a supervisor calling out the names. The Americans just tucked theirs in a shirt or purse. The Slovakians held the pay sheet in both hands reading every entry carefully before putting it away. They looked like they were opening Christmas gifts. On this July 4 they are a good reminder to the rest of us that this country still offers a lot of opportunity for those seeking it.

377 Beach Reading for the lake

I don’t know why my “beach reading” ends up being such heavy stuff--like “John Adams” which I read during summer of 2002 and “First Mothers” last summer. The book I brought to the lake this summer is “Locust; the devastating rise and mysterious disappearance of the insect that shaped the American frontier.” by Jeffrey A. Lockwood, professor of Natural Sciences and Humanities at the University of Wyoming. He brings together the climatological, economic, religious and political forces at work in 19th century America when the plagues of locust struck. I didn’t think anyone grieved the loss of the locust (I’ve never forgotten Laura Ingalls Wilder’s story about the locust swarms in the Little House series), but Lockwood does, and thinks when billions of creatures disappear almost overnight, we are all the losers. So I was reading “Locust” everyday as the Mayflies pelted the screens wondering if I'd miss them if they disappeared.

When we arrived on Saturday for the first week of the season, the cars, streets, houses and screens were covered with Mayflies. They are attracted to the lights and under every pole is a crunchy slimy mess, with an odd odor. Some years the Mayflies are so thick they get drawn into generators and equipment and cause power failures. Mayflies lay their eggs (8,000 per female) on the water. They sink to the bottom and when they hatch into nymphs they burrow into the sediment and feed on particulates. They go through 20 or 30 molts and finally are ready for a final day, after a 2 year existence of getting ready for sex and us, the folks on land who really don’t like them much. After some inflight mating, they lay eggs and die.

According to an article by our neighbor, Joe Day, in this week’s Lakesider, the Mayflies arrived here because of the early European settlement which disturbed the ecological balance of the lake region with agriculture, but then they were killed off in the mid 20th century when oxygen levels in the lake fell too low to sustain the nymphs. When better water quality standards were enforced and sewage and chemicals were no longer dumped into Lake Erie, the Mayflies returned. The return of the Mayfly benefit the fisherman (perch eat them) and the birds.

Joe writes, “Looking up into the evening sky and seeing the amazing numbers of little fair-like mayflies in their reproductive dance-like ceremony leaves me in the quiet reflection of a humble soul in a wonderful town of this truly incredible world. Fly on little fellas.”

Lockwood writes, “As our current environmental crisis exposes our past act of destruction--and as it threatens human populations squeezed into our favored habitats of seaboards, riverbanks, and desert margins--one can only wonder what else we might learn from the Rocky Mountain Locust. . . Along with hurricanes and drought, such creatures serve to remind the industrial world that humility is still necessary.”

376 Slower than e-mail, faster than land mail

At the coffee shop here on the peninsula, I noticed a note written on the back of a sales receipt, propped up against an upside down Pepsi paper cup, with a little fuzzy bird attached to it. The note read:

“I’m reinstated and my new card is good no matter what excuses I use.”

I asked the staff person if someone had left it by mistake. “Oh no,” she said, “two gentlemen who come in at different times leave notes for each other there.”

375 Bumper stickers

I was driving behind an automobile--smallish, with some age--plastered with sayings and proverbs. Perhaps to cover up budding rust spots.

“Bring back Monica Lewinsky”

“Thank you for not breeding.”

“Stupidity need not be painful.”

And a Happy face with a finger in its nose.

Sort of makes me wonder what the guy’s T-shirt says.

374 Wednesday at the Lake

Many more people in the Confucian Ethics class--word is getting around what an outstanding instructor Gene is. Everyone says, "I wish I'd had college instuctors like this!"

He told about how Chinese children are taught to observe the roles by learning music, poetry and calligraphy. You write poetry to prepare for life's major decisions. "He is the best poet in the group," is a sign of who is leader (he may not be a good poet, but receives that honor). The more poetry, the more sophisticated the speech. Calligraphy is taught as character formation. Music and art are ad-ons in our society, and may be the first to be cut.

I've been reading "Locust," all week and have been taking it to the hotel porch and to the coffee shop to read. I'm determined to finish it and find out why the locust swarms, the scourge of the 19th century farmers, disappeared. The author tells many asides, from how he did his research, to the biographies of different entomologists, to environmental disasters stories, but I'm sure he'll reveal his thinking before the final page.

373 Tuesday at the Lake

Last night we had Wes and Sue over for supper on the deck. They are clients and have the cutest little cottage, just perfect for Lakeside. It is getting a lot of buzz because its style and size are just right for the tiny lots (33') we have in this old community with narrow streets and ancient trees.

We're enjoying a class on Confucian Ethics taught by Dr. Gene Swanger of Wittenberg University. Everyday the class grows larger instead of smaller as is usual in Lakeside. Dr. Swanger teaches American government officials and the military how to interact and live in an Asian environment. We learned there are 3,300 roles for behavior, and no real concept of "individualism" as we understand it in the West.

Art class is shrinking. Today we did figures, and I gave my drawing to the 15 year old model since he was so patient, and he liked it.

372 Monday at the Lake

The day started with a small rain squall, built to a big storm in early afternoon, cleared, thenn we had a big windy wet storm about 4 p.m., but I was already at the art center. The drawing class is a mix of adults and children, and as usual, the kids get pretty discouraged and end up drawing lighthouses or boats instead of the assigned task, which this day was a still life of old blenders, a fan and lunch box.

Last night's program was organist Paul Oakley. Such a beautiful program. We enjoyed him so about 10 years ago when he organized a "Masterclass" of musicians at Lakeside. We found the four chairs we had paid for and they have the names of our family on a plate in the back. These chairs are much nicer and more comfortable than the hard wooden ones.

371 At Lakeside

The perfect summer day at the Lake--clear blue sky and 72 degrees. Golf carts are becoming more ubiquitous each year, with corresponding restrictions on auto parking, but at least more are battery operated now, thus quieter.

The volunteers have been busy sprucing up the flower gardens. The Hoover Auditorium is 75 years old this summer, and they've really been working hard there. Our impatiens are blooming, but were sort of leggy when planted in May and have stayed that way rather than filling out.

A stroll through the business district (2 blocks) shows some changes. One of the antique dealers gave up because he got such a good offer for his building, and his wife needed to spend more time with her mother and couldn't mind the store. A delightful gift/art shop has been returned to a cottage "for rent." The realty firm on the corner has left that building and it is being remodeled into something that looks like a cottage, but the sign says coffee shop. The cokesbury Bookstore opened two weeks ago for the Methodists' conferences.

Tonight's program is the River City Brass Band from Pennsylvania. I love brass. Hope there is a lot of trombone, my weapon of choice.

370 This is not about Lustrons

You’ve probably seen a Lustron--a steel house of porcelainzed panels built in the late 1940s to help solve the housing shortage after World War II. Here’s a brief story from the Ohio Historical Society web site:

“At the end of the war, a severe housing shortage plagued the United States. Businessman Carl Strandlund sought to solve this problem by mass-producing prefabricated, porcelain-enameled, steel houses. With the support of veterans groups, he received millions of dollars in federal loans to establish his factory, which he modeled after General Motors and Ford. The new Lustron Corporation leased the abandoned Curtiss-Wright factory adjacent to the Port Columbus airport. The government also allocated the new firm a generous supply of rationed steel for its enterprise.”

There have been reunions in Columbus, Ohio, of the designers, builders and owners of Lustrons, and I usually get an invitation because my grandparents built a Lustron in 1949, and for awhile I was part of a listserv concerning Lustrons after my Dad purchased that same home fifty years later, and we needed to do some repairs for him. My home town in Illinois has close to 20 Lustrons and it is a very small town. Pink, blue, yellow and tan--just hose ‘em down when they get dirty.

However, this is not a blog about Lustrons, it is about the WWII housing shortage. All my life I’ve been hearing about housing shortages after the war. I never even questioned it. We had a bit of one ourselves when the people who had been renting our house while Dad was in the service wouldn’t move when we came home, and we had to live with my grandparents.

I’ve been reading Thomas Sowell’s book, Basic Economics (rev. 2004). He says that after WWII, there was no scarcity of housing--severe or otherwise. He says scarcity is when a tornado or earthquake destroys housing, but shortage is created by prices. The ratio between housing and people had not changed (from 1941 to 1945), so there was no greater lack of housing. What had changed was artificially low rents due to rent controls during the war. When rents were low, some people rented larger spaces than they needed, and some landlords took properties off the market because they couldn’t cover maintenance costs and make a profit. So there were just as many housing units, but many people looking for places to live at prices they could afford. He said in different decades, the same thing has happened in Sweden and Australia--the more rent control laws, the more housing shortage.

New York City, says Sowell, has had rent control longer than any other American city with the consequence that turnover of apartments there is less than half the national average and it contributes to homelessness, because the small guys who might have housing the poor could afford, are pushed out of the market. People are sleeping outdoors, while buildings stand empty. Very wealthy people keep their rent controlled apartments just because they can, but don’t live there. San Francisco also has rent control, which drives up the cost of living there for everyone.

Also, when price controls on meat were ended in 1946, all of a sudden there was enough meat for everyone because it killed the black market. He also says there was no gasoline shortage in the 1970s. Price controls led to a cutback on the hours that filling stations remained open, so they could stay open for a few hours a day instead of having the costs of being open 12 or 24 hours, and make the same profit.

I never knew that about Lustrons. The government created the shortage, and then supplied the loans to relieve the shortage. I never knew there really wasn’t a housing shortage (less housing) after WWII. I’ll have to think about that and try to undo a lifetime of indoctrination.

369 Low Carb Hysteria

Partnership for Essential Nutrition is a group of non-profits concerned with health and nutrition that hope to bring some common sense to this low-carb stuff. I have no idea if it is legit, or just another “follow the money” group getting funded by the food industry.

I’m now getting a low-carb biz newsletter because I asked for their premiere issue of their print publication, and I’ve been surprised by the push and rush to low carb. Especially I’m surprised at how bad the commercially prepared low-carb foods taste. Panera’s is putting out two low carb bagels for samples in the morning, and I’ve tried them both. The asagio cheese bagel is my all time favorite, but low carb, it tastes like library paste. The result of eating low-carb food is the same as eating fat-free--taste free and leaves a craving which will in turn cause many people to eat more. I purchased a loaf of low-carb bread, and threw it away after we ate some. I bought low-carb yogurt for my husband, and he said, “Tastes like your foot’s asleep.”

There’s only one way to lose weight, and it always works, and it works for anyone. Burn more calories than you consume, and that means Eat Less, Move More. ELMM. But there is no way to market it and it does require some motivation and will power.