2086 Afternoon walk in the park

It was nearing 60 degrees today--pretty unusual for January in central Ohio, so we headed to the park for a walk. The golf course seemed to have almost as many golfers as a warm fall day, and we saw people playing tennis in the park in shirt sleeves and shorts. There was also a game of football, lots of dog walkers, joggers, bikers, and families walking with children and playing with them on the playground. The sky was a bright blue (also unusual around here in the winter). I talked to someone in Illinois this afternoon who was getting rain, so we'll probably get that tomorrow. But this hint of spring was nice. As I get older, time goes by so quickly I hardly even notice winter anymore. We had seven adult deer in our back yard this week--not sure that is a sign of spring, or if they are just getting bold about finding something to eat. One came right up to the patio.

2085 Catching some highlights of history

I was visiting Florida Cracker's blog and discovered that she is a librarian (been reading and linking to her for probably 2 years and don’t recall coming across that item). Now I'll have to move her link. In one of her entries, she mentioned the Romanov photo albums at Yale Beinecke Rare Book Library, so I had to hop on over there and take a look. I was a Russian major, you know. Absolutely charming family photos of the whole family in leisure activities--Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children, their friends, servants, etc. It’s now been about 90 years since they were murdered. A hauntingly beautiful example of the marriage of libraries, donors and the internet. There is also a finding guide

Then I clicked around on the Beinecke site until I came to a data base of Uncatalogued Acquisitions. In my day, we called that "the backlog," and I have many not unpleasant memories of wandering through spooky shelving areas pulling off interesting items. In veterinary medicine an 18th century book was extremely rare, but we did have a few.

The problem when faced with a search window for a database of material unknown to you, is what keyword do you enter? If you know what's in there, it's no problem. But I had no idea what Yale might be leaving uncatalogued. So I returned to my veterinary roots and used “horse,” coming up with some interesting items including the court-martial papers of George Sackville in 1760. Not knowing who that was, I Googled him, and discovered he was Secretary of State for America in Lord North's cabinet during the American Revolution. His ministry received much of the blame for Britain's loss of her American colonies. And there sits his court martial in Yale’s uncatalogued collection. What an ignominious ending for a politician. I can think of a few at the Alito hearings I would wish to have locked up in a library gathering dust.

Call Number
TSIP
Author
Sackville, George Germain, Viscount, 1716-1795
Title
Proceedings of a general court-martial held at the Horse-Guards on Friday the 7th ... to Monday the 24th of March 1760 ... on Tuesday the 25th of March ... to Saturday the 5th of April 1760. Upon the trial of Lord George Sackville
Place
Edinburgh
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Kincaid, J. Bell, R. Fleming, and for A. Millar in the Strand
Date
1760
Physical Description
1 v.

Another interesting keyword to use in this uncatalogued database is "letters." I think it got about 700 matches.

Romanov family
Czar Nicholas II
Beinecke Rare Book Library

2084 Thinking in thirteen

This week I completed my fourth Thursday Thirteen, a meme to challenge the blogger with new ideas and to bring new people (and returnees) to your site. Here's the results. You can see that Thursday is a big day.

Obviously, everyone's a slacker on Saturday and are off finding things to blog about the rest of the week. My first TT was Jan. 5, then 12th, 19th and 26th.

Here's mid-October-November, 2005


So some are just stop and peek, but a few keep coming back.

This entry is about Thursday Thirteen, but it is also about my stats. I have a little freebie stat counter--you can see it over on the left, and I also have another one that doesn't show, and it looks at a different range of things. If I were willing to pay for an ungrade, God only knows what else I'd know about you besides your ISP, your city, how many times you've returned, how you got here, what keywords you used, etc. And I know you're out there looking at me and dropping little cookies along the way so the big bad wolf called "No Privacy" can find me.

The news media and blogs have been full of the outrage over the government requesting, not names, but statistics from Google for porn searches. Google has said "No." Lots of unhappy libertarian and Democrats over this one. Brought the Bush-bashing to new levels.

Well folks, that horse got out of the barn and fled years ago. Any passworded staff member of any library, credit card company, hospital, mortgage lender, retail store, membership organization, etc. can look at your private information, and that capability has been out there for years.

The Bureau of Motor Vehicles has been selling your personal information since long before we had personal computers or anyone heard of porn on the internet. So have the utility companies. Insurance companies have been sharing your personal medical information at least since the 70s when I first read an article about the huge databases that were maintained, and maybe before that.

When my husband first became a sole proprietor in 1993, we got all kinds of offers for "lists;" by ZIP, by phone number, by hobby, by house size, by automobile make--I'm sure if we'd inquired, we could have bought a pornography list, a gay list, a leather list, etc. [that string ought to bring 'em here] You and your life's details are out there for a price, for sale to absolutely anyone.

All these loyalty cards you've signed up for at CVS or Krogers or one of the airlines for "free" miles? All that information is sold--but usually with your name. Had a speeding ticket, DUI, brought a law suit or been in a brawl that brought out the police? It's all in your county court system's databases that are out there for anyone to see.

Want to know where the doors and windows are in your victim's house and what streets and alleys are near by for escape? Just check your county auditor's website that provides a photo and floor plan of all the homes along with the valuations. So unless you are visiting child porn sites, I don't know what the fuss is about, because you and I certainly lost the privacy battle going on 20-30 years now.

"The federal government's requests [of Google]--which amount to a list of 1 million random Web addresses and a week's worth of search queries--is supposed to help the government build a case that Internet porn is readily accessible to minors, thus creating a need for its once-denied Child Online Protection Act (COPA)." Forbes

A quarter of all internet searches are for porn. Don't you believe it that Google (which I love) guys stay up at night thinking of ways to protect your privacy. Porn is a huge part of the search engine business, and probably the stat businesses you and I are using "for free."

This is about money. Not privacy. Not civil liberties.

Thursday Thirteen
Privacy
pornography
COPA

2083 Great vacation ideas

are over at Courtney's Thursday Thirteen, where she lists 13 national parks she has visited an enjoyed. She's a young mom with 2 children, but I don't know if these were trips with the kids. But the links she gives will provide the details.

I'm working on a series (well, I've written one called, Part 1) of essays for my writing class about our family vacations that weren't at my mother's farm or Lakeside. You'd be surprised how you'll forget what you never thought you'd forget, or what you'll remember that didn't happen. So, mommies, blog about those vacations and then print it out. Digital isn't forever, it doesn't even have a 5 year plan, and paper will last at least for your grandchildren.

Speaking of which, did you see on last night's news (every channel) that James Frey has finally admitted that Million little Pieces was a thousand big lies? At this point, I'm wondering if it was all a big bag of marketing (parent company of CNN, Court TV and Smoking Gun is apparently the same--maybe they own the publishing house?) between the author, Oprah, the publisher and the American Library Association to get more people reading!

2082 A new installment

over at Neo-Neocon. Can a former liberal find happiness as a conservative? Will this therapist ever be accepted by her colleagues (I'm betting they aren't as liberal as the library profession). In Part 6B of "A Mind is a Difficult Thing to Change" she continues with the unfolding of her escape:

"The access was provided by the internet. The worldwide media was newly at my fingertips. Without it, I would never have encountered the varied sources that led me down the path of change, but would instead have stuck with the old tried and true--the Times, the Globe, the New Yorker, Nightline, and NPR--and I am certain I would not be sitting here today, writing this blog."

And she's pretty open about how she'd been misled by her trusted sources, but also how she didn't question anything:

"It may seem hard to believe, but in years past I had never paid particular attention to who had written a story as long as it appeared in a major media source that I trusted. The Times, the Globe, the New Yorker--I trusted that their editors would only publish reliable writers, and that all articles would be scrupulously fact-checked. Yes, I knew that all newspapers and magazines had a political slant (be they liberal or conservative), but that was only in the editorials, right? Even though I knew there might be some underlying agenda, the news pages--the facts--were sacred. . . How can I explain my previous naivete? How had it escaped me that bias was not confined to the editorial pages?"

Read this installment, and check out her earlier posts.

Thirteen things about appliances and equipment NORMA has learned over the years. Sure, you're going to say "Oh, that's just Murphy's Law in action," but actually, it's just the accumulated wisdom of someone who's been a homeowner since 1962. 1. The furnace will go out on the coldest day of the year, air conditioning on the hottest. 2. The hot water heater will give up when you have a houseful of overnight guests. 3. The freezer chooses to throw in the towel when it is full of expensive meat. 4. The garage door opener will stop in mid-lift and jam when the car is inside, not outside. 5. The built-in kitchen appliance that matches the cabinets will not be available in that style or color when it starts taking occasional naps. 6. The hair dryer starts to smell funny and smoke when your hair is wet and you’re getting ready for a formal event or a job interview. 7. The foot feed on the sewing machine starts to spark when you’re rushing to finish a small child’s school costume for a play that is today. 8. The lamp shade that scorches is no longer available in that size or color, and it’s part of a matched set. 9. The electricity is interrupted during a storm only if you’ve been working furiously for an hour in a rare fit of inspiration and have neglected to periodically save your document on the computer. 10. The only time the iron ever tips and falls on the carpeted floor is when it is set on the hottest temperature. 11. The cell phone only fades during a true emergency like a late appointment--but it always is in perfect working order when you’ve forgotten to turn it off before church. 12. The clothes washer (or dish washer) will only die when it is filled to capacity for “large load” with the maximum amount of water it will hold. 13. The garbage disposal begins to whine and stops when you’ve just scraped the plates from a dining room table full of guests. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Joan, 2. Matthew 3. Wendy, 4. Mar, 5. Better Safe, 6. Lisa, 7. Mary, 8. Nicole, 9. Transplanted Frog, 10. Chickadee, 11. Colleen, 12. Sleeping Mommy, 13. Busy Mom, 14. Uisce, 15. D., 16. Karen, 17. Stacie, 18. Shelli, 19. Jen, 20. Renee, 21. Courtney, 22. Janne, 23. Kelly, 24. Nancy, 25. Charity, 26. JK 27. Killired, 28. Autumn, 29. Jane, 30. Randy, 31. D. Challener Roe

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

2081 The Westcott House in Springfield, OH

Let me be very clear, this restored Frank Lloyd Wright house is in Springfield, Ohio. Take a look at this link and several of the side bars and other links, and you'll see that the city and address aren't noted. If you work your way through the links all the way to the right to "Home," it will give you the address.

I see a lot of websites for libraries, churches, hospitals, museums and public buildings that make this mistake. The webmaster forgets that many people will come to the site from Google or Yahoo and will not land on the "home" page. This link will tell you the hours of the tours and when the gift shop is open--but it is mum about where the house is or how to get there. Before you start your bling bling slides, tell the reader where it is!

Anyway, back to the point. We are meeting friends for lunch in Springfield today and then will take a tour. There is also a restored Frank Lloyd Wright house in Springfield, Illinois, but you're on your own for that. If you google, "Frank Lloyd Wright Springfield" you can get a two-fer.

Westcott House
Frank Lloyd Wright
Springfield, Ohio

2080 Run it up the flag pole

As I mentioned yesterday, I put Stephen Harper, the new Canadian Prime Minister, in the prayer job jar (a clear glass jar on the kitchen table from which we take requests when we say grace). I showed my husband his photo on my blog, and explained who he was, what a tough job he was going to have, and why we should pray for him. But the name was new (to both of us), and twice during the prayer he stopped and asked me his name. "Stephen Harper," I whispered, as though God wouldn't notice how rusty we are on our Canadian politics.

In today's WSJ, Mark Steyn, a Canadian columnist, has an article "An Act of Political Hygiene" in which he gives a tepid endorsement of Harper and a red hot condemnation of the previous liberal government. One funny story (which I hope is an urban legend, but perhaps Mr. Cloud knows) he reported was that when the Canadian Liberal party was trying to win over the Quebecans, it was so burdened by scandals and incompetence that it outsourced a flag project to overseas companies which for $45 a flag, sent back "a gazillion flags that can't fly." No eyelets, no sleeve, no halyard line for a rope, no toggle.

Steyn says Harper won't be "George W. Bush's best friend," as his liberal opponents threatened, and there will be no military presence in Iraq. They don't even arm their border guards so they won't be much use for domestic threats in this hemisphere, either.

Stephen Harper

2078 If you are a certain age

click over to Bonita's site and answer some questions. It will help to be 60 or over. Don't know if people in their 50s would know these. Like

Before inline skates, how did you keep your roller skates attached to your shoes?

What did all the really savvy students do when mimeographed tests were handed out in school?

2077 660 dozen cookies

Yes, you read that right. Some of the men at our church participate in the KAIROS ministry in prisons around the state, and they take in homemade cookies. Lots of cookies. The next week-end is February 16, and they need the cookies by February 10. I'm trying to decide if I feel ambitious enough to make a few dozen cookies that I won't be tempted to eat. I have no problem at all leaving store-bought cookies alone, but at that art luncheon yesterday--someone brought home made chocolate chip cookies and I think I ate three.

Scheduled outage

Blogger's going to have a scheduled outage, so I'm thinking of launching my Thursday 13 early. I mean, what if it doesn't come back up and I've wasted 13 thoughts?

2075 Pro-Bono for the enemy

Apparently, our country is so great and so just, that there aren't enough poor and unfortunates on our soil to use up the pro- bono time of the fancy law firms. Amy Ridenour points to this article by Deroy Murdock.

"Why our best law firms would dedicate their pro-bono resources to suspected terrorists rather than, say, people rendered homeless by Katrina, is beyond me," marvels one former high-level federal attorney who previously was involved with these issues. "By definition, these representations only serve to expand the rights of alien enemy combatants during wartime."

You probably won't recognize the names of the law firms, but check out your investments and pensions which are in the companies they represent for the big bucks. You're subsidizing these lawyers' bizarre behavior.

Members of the Guantanamo Bay Bar Association:

"Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, (1,300 lawyers; Am Law Global 100 rank: 11; Its clients include Bell South, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, Whirlpool, and UAL Corp., the parent company of United Airlines, two of whose airliners al Qaeda agents smashed, respectively, into 2 World Trade Center and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001. This left United's 94 passengers and 16 crewmembers dead. Mayer leads John Does 1-570 v. George W. Bush, essentially, a class-action lawsuit involving every enemy combatant at Gitmo not already suing the president for release during wartime.

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, Los Angeles (300 lawyers; Among its clients: Alaska Airlines, Anschutz Entertainment, Harley-Davidson, Mattel, Pfizer, and Transport for London, the British agency that runs the London Underground, which al Qaeda bombed July 7, killing 52 commuters. On October 24, Manatt attorneys sued President Bush in federal court on behalf of suspected Islamic extremist Adbulkadar Abdulkhalik Dad.

Shearman & Sterling (1,000 attorneys; Am Law No. 15; $775 million estimated 2005 gross). Clients include Deere & Co., Delphi, Ford, Morgan Stanley, and PG&E. Shearman partner Thomas Wilner, lead attorney for 12 Kuwaiti enemy combatants, wants Uncle Sam to compensate detainees for time at Guantanamo.

Allen & Overy (1,800 lawyers worldwide; Am Law ranks the British firm No. 6 with $1.22 billion in approximate 2005 revenues, and Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and JPMorgan Chase among their clients.

Covington & Burling (520 lawyers; Am Law Global 100 rank: No. 76; $337.5 million in estimated 2005 earnings.). Clients: Coca-Cola, Deere & Co., Emory University, Goodyear, IBM, Merck, Microsoft, the NFL, UBS, and 13 Yemeni enemy combatants at Guantanamo.

Dorsey & Whitney, Minneapolis (640 lawyers; Am Law No. 78; 2005 gross: about $330 million). Clients: 3M, Cargill, ConocoPhillips, General Mills, Northwest Airlines, and six Bahrainians at Guantanamo.

Holland & Hart, Denver (300 attorneys in 12 offices). Clients: Safeway, Sears, the Williams Company, and five Algerian terror suspects, including Dr. Abu Muhammed, Abbar Sufian al Hawary, and Motai Saib.

Hunton & Williams, Richmond, Virginia ("850 attorneys. 16 offices. Since 1901.") Clients: Bank of America, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Eli Lilly, General Dynamics, General Electric, and six Yemeni suspected terrorists, including Issam Hamid Ali Bin Ali Al Jayfi.

Paul, Weiss (Am Law No. 38; approximately $504 million in 2005 revenues). Clients: Chubb, DirecTV Group, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Philip Morris, Time Warner, Viacom, and 11 Saudi Guantanamites."

2074 We can't have it both ways

Nothing has infuriated conservatives more than liberals saying, "I'm against the war, but I support the troops." It just didn't make sense, and you could hear the Vietnam guilt over the treatment of our returning troops just dripping as they tied their yellow ribbons around the old oak tree. So over at Sister Toldjah yesterday I read about Joel Stein's article, Warriors and Wusses in the LA Times. I thought he made perfect sense; an honest disagreement on the war issues, but hey, at least he wasn't playing games. Then I heard Glenn Beck read the entire article on the radio this morning, and it sounded even better. You go, Joel.

Now why are conservatives so mad when a liberal admits they sound ridiculous? What does it take into today's political climate for people to have an honest difference of opinion and not attack each other?

Then I went back and read some of his other stuff, and for a liberal, he's darn funny. I like the guy. Refreshing after all the teeth gnashing conservatives whose faces crack when the jokes do.

2073 Stephen Harper, the new Canadian PM

Welcome. It was time.

"Monday's vote showed that Canadians are weary of the Liberal Party's broken promises and corruption scandals. They were willing to give Harper a chance to govern despite concerns that some of his social views are extreme." USAToday here.



"He pledged an immediate 1% cut in national sales tax, a new vigour in fighting crime and gang violence, and a re-evaluation of relations with Washington, which have become strained in recent years." BBC story here.

I will drop him in my prayer job jar today.

2072 Nanny goat

There's a family in Bexley Ohio (well-heeled, old money suburb of Columbus) that is advertising in today's paper for a nanny for their one year old triplets. (Pause here: get your mind around the chaos of 3 toddlers all the same age, still in diapers, that is driving a woman out of her lovely suburban home to the peace and quiet of the office.) 50 hours a week, 4 day week. "Should have child care experience." Well, duh!

2071 It’s a great book and the art is more important than the truth.

No, that's not Oprah talking about James Frey's "A million little pieces," which has been revealed to be a complete fraud. It was the response to a warning that Alexie Sherman gave the editor of Nasdijj, whose book The Blood was about to be released.

In a article full of intrigue, gay sex, phony adoption stories, autism, KKK and the growing cadre of whites posing as Native Americans in order to be published writers, Matthew Fleisher attempts to shed some light on why and how readers, talk show hosts, critics, editors and film producers want to continue supporting made-up memoirs. The difference between Nasdijj and the other Indian imitators, says his critics, is that he doesn't try to appropriate and promote Indian spirituality and culture, but primarily uses it as a backdrop--he prefers young boys. Even when he was a "leather lit" writer, Nasdijj (then known as Timothy Barrus), was claiming service in Vietnam, also a lie.

After reading "Navahox" I imagined that before we know it, Oprah will be revealed as part Native American with a closet life in the KKK, Ward Churchill as her cousin, and James Frey as her autistic adopted son. Hey, it's art that matters, not truth, right?

HT to Galley Cat who was writing about fake authors coming in threes.

2070 Going out of business blog

The Blog of Daniel is a blog set up to discuss both the issues brought up in the TV show "The Book of Daniel" and the show itself. Now it reports that the show has been cancelled, so what should it do with no reason to exist? Send them your ideas.

The show mocked Christianity and even basic values of non-Christians, but it apparently died of poor numbers, not poor taste. Or maybe that's one and the same for once.

2069 Two art shows in one afternoon

Today we went to an artist friend's home for lunch. She'd invited other artists and friends interested in art, so in addition to good fellowship, we had a time of sharing as those who wanted to, displayed and discussed some of their recent work. The core group was from the Central Ohio Watercolor Society, but much to our surprise, a number of them had started working in oils and some had gone from tightly representational work, to very strange (to my eye) abstracts. Our hostess also no longer works in watercolor, and we saw a display in the living room of her lovely oils, particularly trees (she has a degree in agriculture) and some smaller versions of horse paintings she'd done on commission.

One of the artists mentioned that she was in the current city of Upper Arlington show in the Concourse Gallery, called "Landscape." This show comes down tomorrow, so on our way home we stopped to see that show. If you live in the area and have time, it is really a lovely show. "The painters of Landscape are Rick Akers, Debra Dawson, Rachel Stern, Michael Hoza, Stacy Leeman, Edwin Shuttleworth III, Malcolm Baroway, and Betsy Arvidson. Uniquely reflecting the landscape of nature, the artists’ deep appreciation for the Ohio scenery and beyond is seen in every brushstroke and wash of color. All painters of Landscape are represented by Sharon Weiss Gallery."

A lovely afternoon.

Artists, Ohio

2068 The judges who don't believe in punishment

Judge Edward Cashman doesn't believe that punishment works for men who rape children, so he gave Mark Hullet, 34, 60 days for sexually abusing a child for three years. Story here. He's right, it doesn't work in the sense of changing or reforming sex offenders, so let's keep them away from children and warehoused in prison for the rest of their days. Expensive? You bet. What is your daughter's life worth? Safety of the general population should also be a factor in sentencing. Just a guess, but I'm betting Judge Cashman thinks registration of sex offenders is an invasion of his privacy and a violation of his civil rights.

Here in Columbus, Ohio we've had a similar case bubbling on the back burner, but all the neglect and screwy sentences happened before the most recent crime. The man was sent to prison in 1997 for rape of a child and released in 2004. Since his 2004 release he:

1. was returned to prison for 100 days for leaving the state

2. failed to register as a sex offender

3. was arrested for driving under suspension

4. was jailed on parole violation

5. was picked up for stealing a car

6. was charged with felony theft and sent to jail for 3 days

7. was sent from jail to a hospital because he was "acting strangely'

8. was released from the hospital and then kidnapped and raped a 15 year old in a vacant apartment complex

9. which was in violation of city code so it had been shut down; it had six security guards on duty to keep out vagrants, drug dealers and the criminal element; the previous firm the owner hired had quit due to lack of payment from the owner

10. and he [the rapist] had been living in one of vacant apartments where he'd taken the child.

This is a very large net of incompetency. You'd need more than two index fingers to point and blame. Let's hope the rapist gets a judge who understands that our citizens need some protection, and that short of a miracle from God, this man is not going to change through the criminal justice system.

Judge Edward Cashman
sex offenders

2067 Young People in Debt

This morning I read a book review of Tamara Draut's "Strapped." Draut says that today's young adult children of the baby boomer generation can't get ahead financially because of astronomical student debts, depressed wages, rising health care costs and soaring property values. The solutions offered by some young adults are silly and counterproductive--"the government should do something."
If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times, "things aren't like they were in your day." I agree. We had it much harder, thank goodness. We started married life with an 8 year old car and eventually went on foot and bicycle when the car died. But our parents, who had been teens during the Depression, thought we had it easy--and frankly, so did I.

I believe there are a few basics that still apply, so I'll just jump right in on Ms. Draut's coat tails. So if your mama was a baby boomer and went into debt or worked two jobs to give you everything you asked for rather than what you actually needed, you may just have to go back to grandma's methods if you want to turn this around in your generation.

1. Postpone your wants and take care of your needs.

2. Tithe your gross income to your church or synagogue.

3. If you have two incomes, save one and live on the other for month to month expenses. Use the "other" account for new tires, a leaky roof or a health emergency, but if you're using it to buy groceries and movie tickets, you'll never get ahead.

4. Borrow money only for a home mortgage or car loan.

5. Pay off all credit cards in 30 days to avoid charges and interest.

6. Never put groceries on your credit card. If it won't last until the bill comes, don't put it on the card.

7. Buy less house than the bank says you can manage. Instead, go for the best, safest and most convenient neighborhood you can afford. Same for renting if you are still in that stage.

8. Children get very little from fancy vacations that they can't get from something closer to home. It's your time they want. Take them to a state park, family farm or the local amusement park and save the tours or cruises for "couple time."

9. NEVER let the children see or hear you obsessing over brand names, styles and models, whether it's clothes, cars or appliances. Don't take them to the mall as an event.

10. Meals will cost you either time or money. If you can contribute your own labor you'll save a lot of money, fat and sodium. Save eating out for "date night."

Here's two tips about the English language: SALE is a four letter word that means SPEND, and CREDIT is a six letter word for DEBT.

Ms. Draut's testimony in 2004 for Demos (a liberal think tank) before the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit.

Strapped
personal debt