While every sector of the economy took a hard hit due to the coronavirus, perhaps no industry took it on the chin harder in 2020 than the travel industry. Airlines, hotels, theme parks, restaurants, and cruise lines were all hanging on for dear life this past year – some didn’t make it. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost and entire geographic areas became ghost towns. Can you imagine trying to make it in a beach town or in such…
So after what will probably go down in history as one of the worst years on record (so far), 2020 is well behind us and the 2nd half of 2021 is starting to look better, thanks in large part to the availability and distribution of the three, large-scale COVID vaccines. As we look forward to brighter days, it’s important to look back on what we’ve experienced, analyze it, and see if we’ve learned anything from it. I won’t say we…
After a long, cold winter of such strenuous projects as reading, working on my Duolingo Spanish (a third attempt), exhausting my Hulu and Netflix video library, and playing with LEGOs, I forced myself upon a set of bathroom scales the other day and also found out that I’ve apparently been eating and snacking like a prisoner on death row. The scale settled in on numbers that made me swear out loud when I read the final tally, but I then…
What is this? He’s gonna talk about taxes? Well, yes – but let me explain. While I hate tax season just as much as the next person, I understand that they are a “necessary evil”. Taxes pay for lots of services and infrastructure that we take for granted on a day-to-day basis, such as fire and police protection, roads, and education (to name just a few). Now, I’m not going to sit here and debate about what is “good” or…
Ahhhh, spring! You’re just around the corner. Warm days, flowers in bloom, chirping birds – I do love the change of seasons. It’s also time for the annual spring catalog from Oriental Trading Company, who will readily provide all of your Easter trinket and tchotchke needs (they even have a “happiness guarantee”). If you need to find something weird that crosses the boundaries between commercial celebrations and religion this holiday season, Oriental Trading is for you. Every year, these folks…