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Most print publications have experts picking NFL games every week. Pegasus News, however, is different, in that we have near-flawless methodology in picking teams that will actually win. Our panel of perfect prognosticators — Todd Maternowski and Mike Bullock — will bring the pain each and every week.

This week's graphic is brought to you by a meth-addicted spider monkey using MS Paint while on fire.

As an added bonus, we have included three competing methodologies. The first is the return of “Mascot War,” in which we discuss which team’s actual moniker would win in a pitched battle to the death in the wild. Besides being easily the most controversial aspect of this feature, it will probably also be a constant source of embarrassment as our picks routinely show up.

The second and third methodologies are perhaps equally arcane and mysterious to the average NFL fan. There is the “Occult Pick,” in which our experts use the forbidden art of divination to predict each week’s winner; and “Fashion War,” in which Todd’s wife selects each victor based on the relative superiority of each team’s uniforms.

Most of these picks need no explanation: However, our panel has provided some commentary (footnotes and indexing to follow) for certain especially difficult-to-pick games.

Todd M: Charger versus Titan — In this week’s pitched battle to the death, we see the timeless struggle between souped-up sedan and souped-up pickup. Who will triumph in this clash of revved-up horsepower? At first glance, one would be tempted to put one’s life savings on the Titan: it’s obviously-a-compensator massive size, 300 horsepower and 5.6L engine are certainly nothing to scoff at. But scoff we will, as the Charger comes out just ahead in this supercharged superfight. The Charger’s 6.1L Hemi V8 produces 425 horsepower, which, coupled with a slightly smaller size, provides the Charger with the dexterity and zero-to-sixty flexibility that the Titan simply can’t match. Big and fast beats big and dumb any day of the week. Charger over Titan.

What was once a beautiful and vibrant city with fabulous architecture, has become a ghetto. It’s heartbreaking and sickening to see what was and now is Detroit and all at the hands of 40  years of statism.

Last summer the Detroit school board voted to close 23 schools and laid off 600 teachers. The city is depopulating and with that, student enrollment has shrunk from 140,000 in 1999 to 95,000 today – a 32% drop in 10 years.

A generation and a half of entitlements, union theft and mismanagement has taken its toll on the remaining population. They are a dispirited citizenry and their children’s school performance reflects that. Once again the state wants to step in and fix the problem by forcing parents – who receive state aide – to sign a contract requiring they become more active in their child’s education or be fined for not doing so.

After 40 years of taking personal responsibility away from the people, now they want to make people behave responsibly. Now they want to force parents to actually behave like parents or pay up. A little late in the game for that. These are parents who were raised on entitlements and affirmative action.

[State Rep. George Cushingberry, D-Detroit] wants to do something about the other parents, the ones who are too young, or who don’t read well enough to help their children. He is sensitive to those for whom poverty has been an obstacle.

“Poverty has been an obstacle” to these parents thanks to the do-gooder statists like Cushingberry and other democrats. They have kept Detroiters in poverty for the last 4 decades. As Ben Franklin once said, they have made poverty too comfortable and removed any incentive for these sad people.

This is the scary future that we face from the statist majority in our federal government. This could very well be the fate of all our big cities, our states and our schools.

Steven Crowder has a brand new video about Detroit, worth a watch, here. It’s a real eye opener.

In honor of Ben Franklin who focused on one virtue a month each year (plus humility, which he worked on all year round on the advice of a detractor), I’m working on one life principle each week from Sunday to Saturday.  Will you join me?

I’m not sure why we tend to associate activity with right-mindedness.  I mean, isn’t it better to BE humble rather than to act humble?  To BE happy than to act happy?

Be.  Just be.

Week Eleven:  Be

The Founders spent endless days fighting over a vision for this nation.  Our grandparents fought to keep it free for us.  Men and women continue to fight on our behalf today.  Our parents do everything in their power to make our lives pleasant.  But it’s time we take matters into our own hands.  I’m talking to the youth of America.  As I sit here writing this my mind is whirling about with thoughts of what is going on in this country and my heart is heavy.  I am just one of a growing number.  A growing number young people concerned about their futures.  We come from all backgrounds, beliefs, and economic standings.  But we all share one thing in common, we love America.   We love America and have a similar vision.  Our parents have taught us morals and ideals but we also have some thoughts of our own.  We’ve been inspired by the likes of Ben Franklin, George Washington, Ronald Reagan Sarah Palin, and countless others who have gone before us and who are speaking on our behalf right now. The one’s who have fought in the past and fight for our future.  But we have decided we need to take some action of our own.  We’ve started blogs, begun tweeting, gone to tea parties, started reading and becoming informed.  We’ve even started a website.  We’ve set aside our evenings to watch endless debates on cap and trade and healthcare on CSPAN.  We irritate our parents and friends with our endless thoughts on what is happening and what we believe should be done.  We are young but we are not dumb.  Our experience with politics and the way things should be done is limited but, we have common sense.  For most of us, this is all new.  We see our futures being spent by greedy politicians, we watch the debt clock and think “How am I suppose to pay for that?” We see that our wealth is going to be spread around and that common sense inside kicks in and tells us that isn’t right.  We didn’t grow up getting trophies for trying; we got trophies for winning and winning only. We are fed up.  We aren’t going to take it anymore.  We are poised and ready to do what needs to be done to save this country.  We are more than eager to get out and campaign and vote for those candidates we see fit to work for us.  We will stand firm in our convictions and not let anyone tell us to sit down and shut up.  We’re coming Washington.  Watch out.  Our future rests in your hands and we will do what we feel is best for our future and the future of our families. 

Young people, gather round together.  No more sitting idly by as your future is being flushed down the toilet.  Stand up.  Fight for your God given rights.  Don’t let anyone tell you your voice doesn’t matter.  Read up on the issues.  Learn history.  Decide for yourself.  Do you want a future filled with paying for greedy politicians spending sprees?  Do you want a future where you can’t live in a home unless it meets the government’s energy standards to fight a non-existent environmental issue?  Do you want to be told you MUST buy healthcare even though, you know you’ll be fine without it?  Do you want to live in a country run by union thugs?  Do you want to live in a country where any disagreement with the government results in your being punished?  Do you want to be told that what you believe doesn’t matter?  If not, join us at The Conservative Youth Project.  There you can meet other like minded young people dedicated to educating themselves and getting facts out on the issues facing this country.

by Anne Alexander

This “cougar” word is not my favorite contemporary expression, but we seem to be stuck with it. New word, old concept. There have always been older women-younger men pairings. At least one society has specialized in age-mixing, and I can’t even remember what part of the world these folks inhabit, but all the young girls go to old men, and the old women make it with the young boys, teaching them a thing or two. Later, when a youth has earned some status and fortune, he can get a wife closer to his own age. Candidates are abundant, because eventually the old men die off and free up the younger women – who have by then grown to the approximate age of the upcoming men who have acquired enough of what it takes to be entitled to wives.

As if “cougaring” weren’t bad enough, a young man who fools around with an older woman is said to be “tadpoling.” A tadpole is, of course, a developing amphibian, not even a frog yet. My thoughts return to a place they don’t often visit, a certain night in the late 1960s. Tadpoling. Who knew?

Magazine surveys are notoriously unreliable, good for starting conversations and not much else. But in 2003, an article stated that 34% of women between ages 40 and 69, were dating younger men. Of course there are a lot of questions you want to ask. Like, how much younger, on average? Are we talking about Americans only? Or Americans and Canadians? Europeans? What?

In 2004, Match.com reported on attitudes toward a large age gap between partners. Apparently they used a 15-year difference as the definition of “large.” Anyway, they supposedly found more men who were willing to date a woman 15 years older, than women willing to date a man 15 years younger.

Naturally, someone arbitrarily made up a formula to determine the acceptable societal norm – the “half-your-age-plus-seven rule.” In other words, for a 30-year-old woman, 15 plus 7 is 22 – so your male friend should not be any younger. For a 50-year-old woman, the lowest acceptable male age would be 25 plus 7, or 32.  Of course, if two age-disparate people stay together for a long time, that would mess up the math. It’s all nonsense anyway. The person who invented this standard – who died and made him God?

When Ben Franklin was 39, he wrote a letter to a friend, offering advice about choosing a mistress: find an older woman. Franklin listed 8 reasons, which are briefly paraphrased here:
Intelligence and better conversation.
They treat you good, because they don’t have beauty to offer.
They don’t get pregnant.
They keep their mouth shut about your liaison.
Since they age from the top down, there’s no difference below the waist.
It’s less sinful than deflowering a virgin.
A young girl can be made miserable by your attentions, but an older woman will be made happy.
He winds up with “8th and lastly. They are so grateful!!!”

More recently, Franklin’s advice has been streamlined into the smart-ass slogan, “They don’t yell, they don’t tell, they don’t swell, and they’re grateful as hell.” Accompanied by a snigger.

Actually, it’s nothing to snigger about. Gratitude is always appropriate, on both sides, and at any age, whenever two people meet to express affection and/or exchange bodily fluids. I’m quoting a man on this – Orson Bean, who wrote about his own journey of liberation. He says a healthy man “is filled with tenderness and caring and concern for his partner at the height of the sex act… and afterwards the feeling is one of love and tenderness and deep gratitude.”

Making love with a compatible partner is something to be grateful for, always, each and every time. It’s a wonderful, positive, perfectly gorgeous thing to do. Or should be. And why on earth would a person ever want to share such an experience with a partner who is anything less than grateful – and gratified?

Just like any other kind of pairing, the main thing to consider is this. To find someone you really vibe with is so rare, it’s stupid to create artificial barriers of any kind.

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Grant’s Topics

• Kids these days!
• Late to the party: TeeVee 

Marty’s Topics

• Cable Cable Cable….
• How about that snow?

Podcast of the Week

• Parenting with Lynette, Teresa, and Dr. Bruce 

Wikipedia Article of the Week

• Benjamin Franklin
• Joseph Smith, Jr.

Plugs

• GrantBrunner.com
• Macgasm
• They Said Server Closet
• MEK Photos

I thought it would be cool to think – over the next few days – about gifts to include on our holiday wish list.  First on the list is EXPLORATION, which empowers us to open wide the windows of our hearts and minds.  A willingness to explore is a willingness to discover within and without all that is available in life.  To look at the old as if it were new.  And the new as if it were old.

To step outside of what we know, to visit another viewpoint, another country, another way of doing things, is an act of bravery. And brave acts, once completed, invigorate and energize us.

There’s something about EXPLORATION that doesn’t come naturally.  At least not beyond the toddler years.

I grew up in a small town, maybe 5,000 people.  Even now I long to go back to those days, those people, the certainty that the next person I met along the street would be like me, think like me, share my taste in food, probably my religion.  I envy my girlfriends who married hometown boys and never left.

Maybe I’m not so unusual.  I read recently that the older you get, the more you want to go backward in your life, not forward.  I get that now.

But, no matter, it’s too late anyway.  I peaked behind the curtain too many times to imagine that I won’t do so again.  You have too.

We like to blame it on fate or “the cards we are dealt”, but the truth is we have often chosen, unconsciously or consciously, to trade in door #1 for the uncertainty of door #2.  And have been enriched in the process.

The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size. Oliver Wendell Holmes

With the gift of EXPLORATION we will continue to walk into the unknown.  Map in hand (if we are lucky).  Our travels, whether on the road or in our minds, will include some dead ends and the inevitable, time-sucking wrong turns.  But, and this is usually a “hindsight thing”, we will learn the most from these detours.  Smooth sailing never makes a good story.

Remember “the bigger yes”?  Never happens without EXPLORATION.  Contarian thinking?  Duh, EXPLORATION.   Add it to the list.

Benjamin Franklin’s schedule. (via)

Our friend Ben has always admired inventors. That’s one reason I’m such a huge fan of our hero and blog mentor, the great Benjamin Franklin. I became even more enthusiastic about them after I read about all the great inventions devised by laid-off workers during the Depression, ranging from Monopoly to many of our most popular candy bars. I’m so envious of people who come up with and implement a simple idea that takes off, like the pumpkin garbage bag, and makes them a fortune for what looks like a nominal effort.

Sadly, our friend Ben is more of an armchair inventor. Hardly a week goes by when I don’t think up some great invention. But lacking mechanical skill, drafting ability, and connections in the manufacturing and merchandising sectors, my brilliant inventions never make it any farther than the confines of my brain. Where they quickly join all the others in the trash heap of oblivion.

So naturally I’m always impressed when I see that someone has actually managed to take his or her invention from idea to reality, as was the case this past weekend when I read an article in the local paper about how a commercial airline pilot in the next township over from ours had invented and marketed a device that would roll up and store Christmas lights.

Cory Strong, the inventor of STOR’EM, spent seven years perfecting his storage device, which looks like a very large plastic spool for thread or a very small spool for industrial cable. Then he hired marketing and engineering help, found a manufacturer, and created a website to sell and promote the device, www.nolightmess.com. It’s also available at a number of local stores.

These light-storage spools cost $19.95 plus shipping for two unassembled spools, a connector bit and a cordless screwdriver for the battery-powered model; or $10.95 plus shipping for the manual-wind version. Each set will hold “more than enough” lights to cover a tree. You can also use them to hold extension cords and the like.

So, our friend Ben asked myself, what would Ben Franklin make of this invention? Well, frankly, I’m not sure. On the one hand, I doubt old Ben, with his bent for frugality, would have approved of spending over $20 for something you could make adequately for yourself out of the cardboard tube inside a roll of wrapping paper, assuming you duct-taped each end of the light string to the tube and wrapped it tightly so it wouldn’t slip off.

But on the other hand, virtually all Dr. Franklin’s inventions were aimed at making daily life safer and more pleasant for his fellow citizens. (The glass armonica was a notable exception.) Homey comforts like the rocking chair, Franklin stove, and bifocals helped ordinary folk get more enjoyment out of life. In that spirit, Dr. F. would probably salute Cory Strong, and say, with a smile and a wink, “Good work, young fella! Now, what will you be working on next?”

It’s Monday, and that means it’s time for a Frugal Living Tip here at Poor Richard’s Almanac. We committed to giving you a useful tip to help all of us get through these hard economic times every week throughout 2009. As you can see, we only have three more tips to go. If you’d like us to extend the series into 2010, please let us know!

Today’s tip is about reducing the cost of weddings and funerals. Please excuse our friend Ben while I rant about the two most pointless expenses ever created. To turn two of the most sacred events in people’s lives into excessive, tacky, bankrupting spectacles is, to me, both stupid and sacreligious. Many marry, and everyone dies. Can’t we manage to perform these ceremonies without putting ourselves, our parents, or our heirs in debt for a decade at least?

The average wedding now costs $20,398, not counting the cost of the engagement ring and honeymoon. When you add those in, you’re probably looking at $25,000, and that’s just an average: Half of all weddings in the U.S. now cost more.

Our friend Ben and Silence Dogood think there’s a better way, and this time, sure enough, it’s the old-fashioned way. Throughout much of history, the groom passed along a treasured engagement ring to his bride-to-be that had come down in his family. This heirloom carried great sentimental value and cost not a cent (or at most a few dollars to have it resized for the new bride). The wedding dress was often passed down from mother or grandmother to daughter. The wedding itself was a very elaborate affair held at the church, synagogue, etc., but the reception was a lovely, simple affair held at home.

We wholeheartedly endorse this approach: Give the pomp and ceremony full play in the holy place where you exchange your vows, then go for the simple but heartfelt home-based party afterwards. Have your friends bring desserts, flowers (better tell them the color scheme you prefer!), or champagne instead of gifts. Hold your reception in the backyard and string sparkly white lights in the trees. Or create a unique reception that captures who you are: a grilling party, a pirate-theme party, a locavore celebration where all the foods are produced locally, a poolside party, a picnic. So much more fun, so much more low-key, so much more real.

What if your parents want to throw a big do? If they really have that much money to burn, tell them to just give it to you as a wedding gift instead. You can use it as a downpayment on a house, buy a new car, take three months off and travel the world, pay for your doctoral degree. Or, say, pay off your credit cards. Whatever the case, that money will do a lot more good in your bank account than it would giving a great big party that lasts a couple of hours.

By the way, if religion isn’t your thing, you can still have a lovely wedding, as our friend Ben’s sister did: She was married in our parents’ gorgeous Colonial garden, surrounded by flowering trees, shrubs, and perennials, with a fountain splashing in the background as she and her husband exchanged vows with family and friends in attendance. True, our family spent a fair amount of time that summer making sure the garden setting was perfect, but even adding lovely blooms cost us less than $1,000, and that included the flowers and delightful celebratory feast we’d prepared and set out in the great dining room afterwards.

Now, let’s move on to that other unavoidable expense, funerals. Our friend Ben was in fact inspired to write this post by an article that appeared in our local paper, the Allentown, PA, Morning Call, called “Keeping funeral costs in check.” You can read the whole article at www.themorningcall.com.

Wow, a funeral’s such a bargain by comparison to a wedding: According to figures our friend Ben found online for 2007, it only costs an average of $10,000! Heaven only knows how much it costs now, on the verge of 2010. But one thing that all sources acknowledge is that most people can’t afford it. I was shocked to read that more bodies were being unclaimed at mortuaries because the families simply couldn’t afford to bury them. Cremation is way up because its cost is so much lower—more like $1,000 rather than $10,000—and more people are donating their bodies to science for the same reason; in the case of donation, disposal is free.

Ugh. How about respecting the dead and celebrating their life and death? Our friend Ben thinks of the Amish custom as the ideal in this respect. The dead are washed and dressed in their own clothes by their loving family, and laid out in a simple pine coffin built by community members. They are displayed in a room in the house so family and friends can gather and sit by the coffin, reminiscing about the dead or simply keeping respectful watch. (Neighbors, family and friends also deluge the grieving family with home-cooked foods to sustain them during their time of grieving.) Then an unadorned service is held for the dear departed and they’re taken to a private burial plot for interment. The cost to the bereaved? $0. The comfort provided, the respect for the dead? Incalculable.

For us non-Amish, this may be a non-option. It is apparently still legal to bury one’s dead on one’s own place in some states, but given most people’s rootlessness in today’s society, even were it legal where you lived, could you really say for sure that you’d live in your present place all your life, and your heirs and their heirs would do likewise? Here in rural PA, our friend Ben has seen many a private graveyard tucked away on a farm, and wondered if the farm was still owned by the descendants of the graveyard’s occupants. If not, what a burden to bequeath to strangers!

Frankly, it sounds like the military gets the best deal in terms of cost-free funerals—and God knows, they’ve earned it, risking their lives for the rest of us. If you or a family member was in the military, you and your spouse get free and honored burial and a free gravestone. But you need to contact the Department of Veteran Affairs, request a plot, receive confirmation, and file that confirmation with your papers, while, of couse, letting your family know. You (and your dependents) can also request burial at sea, also free, but family members can’t be present.

There are plenty of other options and cost-cutting suggestions both in the Morning Call article and in an online piece called “Plan a funeral for $800 or less” on MSN Money (Google the title for the link). Our friend Ben suggests that you check them both out and that you think seriously about what you’d like to have done with your remains, and what sort of ceremony you’d want performed to send you on your way. Do it while you’re not pressed by “old mortality,” so it seems more like a creative exercise than the icy breath of Father Time on the back of your neck. Yes, you could set money aside for an elaborate funeral so at least your heirs aren’t strapped to pay for it. But why not give that money to them and enjoy a serene, dignified, inexpensive funeral celebration instead? (Or, if you’re a riotous type, you could always specify that they celebrate a potluck wake in your honor instead, and it, like a wedding, could have a theme that highlighted something central to your life and enjoyment, such as Harleys, model trains, The Beatles, or what have you.)

The best funeral celebration our friend Ben ever attended involved a dear friend of mine named Norm. Norm’s wonderful wife Dolores chose to have a life celebration, and invited friends and family to come and offer their own memories of Norm. When our friend Ben’s turn came, I marched up to the front with a basket of hot peppers, Norm’s favorites, and gave a very short speech saying why I thought hot peppers were a fitting tribute to Norm’s memory, since he was much like a hot pepper himself (memorable, fiery, assertive, unafraid of taking his own stand, etc.). Norm’s family and friends, who knew him well, loved this, and fortunately the funeral bouquets featured hot peppers and garlic (Norm’s other favorite) along with the flowers, so my tribute fit right in. Dolores also showed a computerized slideshow of Norm and played his favorite music while it followed the high points of his life. It was just amazing. And then she had a tribute lunch afterwards so people would have a chance to see and talk to each other and celebrate Norm’s life in a more personal setting. I’ll never forget that day.

Our friend Ben urges you to think about your own wedding and funeral with an eye toward frugality. These are both times when sentiment, not expense, should be uppermost, when the triumph of the human spirit in love here and hereafter should be celebrated. In both instances, you deserve the best. And it’s the best, not that money can buy, but that the community of your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues, acting in loving communion, can provide.

As is the case with so much else in life, taking the time to plan things carefully in advance can make all the difference between an expensive—sometimes ruinously expensive—and impersonal performance and a heartfelt, personal tribute and celebration. Time is money. Take the time now, while it’s not urgent, to make sure that when the time comes, you get what you really want.

In honor of Ben Franklin who focused on one virtue a month each year (plus humility, which he worked on all year round on the advice of a detractor), I’m working on one life principle each week from Sunday to Saturday. Will you join me?

Every moment is an opportunity to give someone (including yourself) or something the gift of yourself.

Then why do we squander our moments as if they are of little value?

Why are we “better-dealers” with this moment, preferring instead to reminisce about moments from the past or daydream about moments to come?

Why do moments increase in value only as our lifetime decreases in years?

Multi-tasking is over-rated and ultimately inefficient and ineffective.  Attending to the moment is golden.

Week Ten:  Attend to the Moment

“Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.”-Benjamin Franklin

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/wine_is_constant_proof_that_god_loves_us_and/199689.html

This thought from Ben Franklin is, I think, especially apropos for this season of “holiday hooplah”:

“Never confuse motion with action.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

What exactly are you accomplishing with all that running around?  We hit warp drive mid-month and arrive on the morning of the 25th, heaving a sigh of relief that we “got it all done.”  Really?  Have we perhaps forgotten something?

I rebel against a December calendar packed with happenings and to do lists.  Call me a Grinch if you want, but I can’t stand all the “noise, noise, noise, noise!” This is the perfect season to “be still.”

Silence Dogood here. This week’s Frugal Living Tip is especially for all you folks who buy boxed cereal. Once again, it comes to us courtesy of Spencer Soper’s “On the Cheap” column in our local paper, the Allentown, PA Morning Call.

Our friend Ben and I aren’t big cereal eaters, though in cold weather, we enjoy a hot bowl of oatmeal with maple syrup and milk or (if we’re feeling decadent) browned butter and brown sugar, OFB’s father’s preferred topping. And in warm weather we’ll occasionally eat a bowl of bite-sized Shredded Wheat’n'Bran. (OFB and our black German shepherd puppy Shiloh are both fond of snacking on the little squares dry. Eeeewww.) But we buy our oatmeal in bulk, and are unikely to buy more than a couple of boxes of Shredded Wheat a year. So when I first read one of Spencer’s columns about ingenious uses for the waxed paper inserts inside cereal boxes, I was impressed, but not to the point of passing the tip along.

However, this past Sunday, Spencer’s “On the Cheap” column featured a slew of ingenious uses for the cereal cartons themselves. Okay, I thought, this really is too good not to pass along, and I can combine it with the earlier column so those of you who go through one or more boxes of cereal a week will have some great frugal options for reusing the empty packaging.

First, though, let me just say that on the rare occasions when OFB and I have a cereal box, we use the cardboard portion, as we do all cardboard packaging, for kindling, mixing it with some of the endlessly falling twigs and branches on our very shaded property. (“Pick Up Sticks” is one of our most constant chores.) If I have a bunch of smaller twigs, I’ll stuff them right into the empty box and add it to our firepit under a couple of logs. Works like a charm! Otherwise, we’ll flatten the box and add it to our bag of other flattened boxes (as in Kleenex), cardboard toilet and paper-towel rolls, envelopes, and the like, then use it the next time we build a fire.

But getting back to Spencer and his ingenious crew of contributors. In Sunday’s column, “An out-of-the-box solution for gift-giving” (ouch, Spencer!), he tells how reader Ellen Fried cuts out pieces of cereal boxes and reconfigures them into small gift boxes, which she fills with candy and money for Hallowe’en and jewelry and money for Christmas. Access the article online (http://www.mcall.com/onthecheap) and you’ll find a video in which Ellen demonstrates how to make the little boxes. The photo of them in the paper looked just adorable, and though I’d never go to that much work, it must be easier than it sounds, since she’s taught all her friends to make them and started a mini-craze.

This did give me an idea, however. If you make toffee nut or caramel nut popcorn and give it at Christmas, or make your own Christmas cookies, cheese straws, cheese biscuits, or crackers (yes, Virginia, people really do make crackers from scratch, but it’s not exactly easy), or the like, rather than buying yet another set of tins to put them in, why not put them in the cereal boxes, wrap them, and hand them out? The waxed-paper insert would keep the contents fresh, and if your lucky recipients decided to transfer your homemade treats to previous years’ tins, it would be up to them. Mind you, you should attach a little card or something to reassure the recipients that they’re not getting boxes of cereal for Christmas!

It also occurred to me that you could (after removing the waxed-paper insert) use an empty cereal box to package a scarf, gloves, hat, book, and/or many another gift, especially if you’ve been prudent enough to save tissue paper from previous years’ gifts to yourself to use as padding. (If not, dollar stores to the rescue!) Gift-wrap the box and you’re done. And you don’t have to turn the box into origami and piece it back together.

Apparently I missed an earlier column in which one of Spencer’s fans wrote in suggesting using cereal boxes to make magazine holders and desktop organizers. At a guess, you’d cut off the top of the box and maybe two-thirds of one side, use wrapping paper and glue to dress it up, add your magazines, printouts, or whatever, and voila!

But let’s get back to that first column, the one about reusing the waxed-paper inserts in the cereal boxes. This column, called “Cereal killers can help save on plastic bags” (okay, I actually loved this headline, I guess I’m a sucker for a really good pun), shared reader tips about reusing the waxed inserts from the cereal boxes to wrap bacon and other meats. One reader, Mary Collins, wraps ground meat in the cereal bags, then stashes them in freezer bags and freezes them. Since the meat never touches the freezer bags, she can reuse them indefinitely. But there’s more: “If I’m making meatloaf or meatballs, I put the bread crumbs and the eggs in the bag and just mix it up in there and knead it and I don’t have to touch the meat,” says Mary. “It’s nice because you can mix everything up in there and you don’t dirty a bowl. If I’m making hamburgers, I can shape the patties right in the paper.” You can read the article and watch a video of Mary at work while you’re checking out Ellen’s boxmaking technique.

But wait. That wasn’t the cereal box waxed-paper tip I remembered. A little more investigation revealed yet another column, this one called “Cereal box yields a hidden prize,” from way back in September 2008. (And yes, even back in the Stone Age, Spencer added a video you can enjoy.)

Here’s the tip I remembered, from reader Gayle Getz: “It’s about the inserts in the cereal boxes. I very seldom have to buy wax paper because I always use those inserts for baggies or I flatten them out and I use them for wax paper. I use them for wrapping bacon. I use it for little garbage bags. I use it for any kind of wax paper needs and also for little baggies. So it really saves on buying wax paper and little baggies.”

So there you have it. Doubtless there are plenty more uses for cereal boxes and cereal-box inserts than we’ve seen so far. Please feel free to send us yours! And Spencer, as always, thanks for keeping frugal tips in the public eye.

         ‘Til next time,

                  Silence

You’re a Toxic Polluter!

So stop Breathing out that toxic gas! You insensitive pig you!

Time.com: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that the agency had finalized its finding that greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, pose a threat to human health and welfare.

Carbon dioxide is normally found as a gas that is breathed out by animals (and people like you and me) and absorbed by green plants. The plants, in turn, return oxygen to the atmosphere.

So I wonder if they sue us for having to clean up our toxic waste??

Obama’s “regulation czar” Professor Cass Sunstein wants animals to be able to sue. “Any animals that are entitled to bring suit would be represented by (human) counsel, who would owe guardian-like obligations and make decisions, subject to those obligations, on their clients’ behalf,” according to Sunstein. The Harvard legal scholar first proposed the argument in 2002.

So maybe Mr. Ed can be the lawyer in class action suit for the Amazon Rain Forest or the tree down the street.

The ruling allows the EPA to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, factories major industrial polluters, although the precise details of that regulation have yet to be worked out. “The threat is real,” said Jackson. “If we don’t act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions the planet we will leave to the future will be a very different than the one we know today.”

So stop Breathing!

“This cements 2009’s place in history as the year the U.S. government began seriously addressing the challenge of greenhouse gas pollution,” said Jackson.

Have faith True Believers!

Not that the liberals and Global Warming Alarmists won’t suffocate you and your job with massive new luddite regulations that will destroy this country and possible the world economy with it.

It will give liberals hope and and make them feel good.

That road to hell is a 10-lane superhighway under construction.

Jackson said she did not have a time table for when the agency would publish a detailed plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and both Jackson and Obama have said repeatedly that they would prefer legislative action — in the form of a carbon cap-and-trade bill — over top-down regulation.

Do it my way or the superhighway.

“An endangerment finding from the EPA could result in a top-down command-and-control regime that will choke off growth by adding new mandates to virtually every major construction and renovation project,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue.

The Chamber was one of the groups not invited to Obama’s  “Jobs Summit” by the way.

Such a command-and-control regime is a long way off, and may never happen — especially if cap-and-trade is finally passed. But with the most important environmental summit in history just kicking off, the EPA’s news couldn’t come at a better time for greens.

Did someone’s Orwellian doublethink go off, cap and trade is  a command and control regime. But if we have that command and control regime it will be better than the EPA’s….gives you the warm fuzzies (or as Chris Matthews said about Obama- “it gives me a tingle up my leg”).

Feel the tingle.

And stop Breathing out that toxic pollutant!!

“There is nothing in the hacked e-mails that undermines the science upon which this decision is based,” Jackson said in announcing the finding this afternoon. She said the controversial messages dealt only with a tiny fraction of the strong evidence of global warming.

Does this robotic response sound vague familiar to every other Religionist asked this question. A Hive mind perhaps? or just good Orwellian programming so that a thoughtcrime doesn’t escape?

The Hill Comment section: Mathematically, it’s this simple: CO2 2009 = Y2K.

Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

Now there are scientists you can believe in.

AFP: Opening ceremonies began with a short film featuring children of the future facing an apocalypse of tempests and desert landscapes if world leaders failed to act today.

“There will be hundreds of millions of refugees,” Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN’s panel of climate scientists, said in the film.

“Please help save the world,” said a little girl, plaintively.

Now that’s just child abuse.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen told opening ceremonies that the world is looking to the conference to safeguard humanity.

“The world is depositing hope with you for a short while in the history of humanity,” Rasmussen said.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.- Ben Franklin

And boy will be fasting very soon at this rate.

So Obama is going to go to Copenhagen and sign away our remaining industrial capacity and destroy the infrastructure of a modern 21st century economy.

And if Cap and Trade is not passed, he will have his Religionists at the EPA do it for him.

Ah, the joys of a democracy.

Rasmussen:  41% of U.S. voters favor the health care plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats.The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 51% oppose the plan. And as has been the case for months, the emotion’s on the sign of the naysayers: 40% Strongly Oppose the plan, while just 23% Strongly favor it.

Only 30% of U.S. voters now say the country is heading in the right direction, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national survey. That’s the lowest finding on this question since mid-February but is still 13 points higher than a year ago.

71% Say Creating Jobs More Important Than Stopping Global Warming

Most Americans (52%) believe that there continues to be significant disagreement within the scientific community over global warming, despite repeated assertions by the White House and others that there is a scientific consensus on the subject.

CNN: According to the survey, roughly a third of the people who believe in global warming think it is due to natural causes, rather than manmade causes such as industrial emissions. As a result, the number who say that global warming is caused by humans has dropped from 54 percent last summer to 45 percent now.

Rasmussen: The fact that the president and other top national leaders continue to pursue agendas at odds with what most Americans view as important helps explain why 71% of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry.

The White House on Monday dismissed as “silly” the notion that global warming science had been compromised by emails exposing a row between top climate scientists. (afp)

Actually what Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary said was : “I think scientists are clear on the science. I think many on Capitol Hill are clear on the science. I think that this notion that there is some debate … on the science is kind of silly.”

The Agenda is the Agenda and nothing will stop The Agenda.

Not even “silly” facts like lying , falsification of data, or suppression of opposition.

That’s just “silly”.

Washington Post: Even proponents of action on climate change, such as Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who has conducted polls on the issue for the American Security Project and the Pew Charitable Trusts, say they have detected a recent fraying of bipartisanship.

“It’s a sad state of affairs when science becomes subject to partisan politics,” Mellman said. “It can only be attributed to the sense that this issue has become part of a political battle.”

And who did that? Our “bi-partisan” Congress ,President, and Too-smart-for-any-room Liberals perhaps?

Everything to a Liberal is politics. Everything.

Period.

Discover: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that only 57 percent believe there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gotten warmer over the past few decades, and as a result, people are viewing the problem as less serious. That’s down from 77 percent in 2006.

Jon Krosnick of Stanford University, who has been conducting surveys on attitudes about global warming since 1993 was surprised by the Pew results.

He described the decline in the Pew results as “implausible,” saying there is nothing that could have caused it.

Clueless aren’t they? So incapable of escaping their Orwellian Thoughtcrime Box that they can’t see any trees in the forest.

And that’s your “consensus” for you…

The only consensus they actually reached is that their right and your wrong and nothing in the universe could possibly change that.

As a Newsweek columnist put it:  But the scientists (who believe in global warming in regards to Climategate) should be bigger than the know-nothings.

” I don’t know where these people got their scientific education, but where I come from, if your theory can’t predict or explain the observed facts, it’s wrong.” (Der Spiegel)

It’s a basic rule of science that you don’t just get to report your results and ask other people to take you on faith. You also have to report your data and your specific method of analysis, so that others can check it and, yes, even criticize it. (RCP)

Unless, you’re liberal superhero, here to save mankind!

Have Faith!

Even the Kryptonite of the Truth is not enough to stop them!

To them anything and everything they do is beyond reproach and so what if they’re lying, cheating,  or ignoring facts, the end justifies the means.

The picture that emerges is simple. In any discussion of global warming, either in the scientific literature or in the mainstream media, the outcome is always predetermined. Just as the temperature graphs produced by the CRU (or NASA et al)are always tricked out to show an upward-sloping “hockey stick,” every discussion of global warming has to show that it is occurring and that humans are responsible. And any data or any scientific paper that tends to disprove that conclusion is smeared as “unscientific” precisely because it threatens the established dogma.(RCP)

So stop breathing you know-nothing toxic gas producing silly saboteur of the Holy Mission of The Religion of Global Warming! They just want to save you from yourself!

Now don’t you feel better.

Clinton said he didn’t inhale, Obama says don’t exhale.

It endangers all mankind.

So save the human race and don’t exhale.

In honor of Ben Franklin who focused on one virtue a month each year (plus humility, which he worked on all year round on the advice of a detractor), I’m working on one life principle each week from Sunday to Saturday. Will you join me?

I going to admit it front and center. This one is tough. It looks easy. It’s not, trust me.

Admit it, you have trouble letting go of an old t-shirt. This life principle asks you to let go of things you may have been holding onto for all of your life!

What are these things you will be asking yourself to let go of? Typically they are going to be mindsets you have about something or someone. The first clue that you have something that is begging to be sent packing is when you hear yourself saying the word “always” or it’s equally evil twin, “never”.

A whole world of possibilities are lost between those two words.

Possibilities like trying a new food, exploring a new way of communicating with someone, learning a new skill, meeting a new person, loving a previously “hated” part of yourself, giving someone a break, turning a corner on a relationship…

Every morning let go of something.  Whether you want to or not.

Week Nine: Let it go

American Minute By William J. Federer

A signer of the Constitution licensed to preach? This was Hugh Williamson, delegate from North Carolina, born DECEMBER 5, 1735. At age 24 he studied theology in Connecticut, was admitted to the Presbytery of Philadelphia and preached two years, visiting and praying for the sick, till a chronic chest weakness caused him to seek another career. He traveled to London to study medicine, but not before seeing the Boston Tea Party, of which he testified before a Privy Counsel that if Britain did not change its policy, the Colonies would rebel. Dr. Hugh Williamson was a Surgeon General, caring for wounded North Carolina troops during the Revolution. He helped Ben Franklin conduct electrical experiments. In 1784, during the Congress of the Confederation, Williamson helped write the Northwest Territory laws, forbidding slavery and “reserving the central section of every township for the maintenance of public schools and the section immediately to the northward for the support of religion.” In 1811, Hugh Williamson wrote “Observations of the Climate in Different Parts of America,” giving scientific explanation for Noah’s flood and the events of Moses’ exodus. He was buried at Trinity Church.

Read more history from American Minute

Ok.. so before I get into this post, let me bring y’all up to speed by saying that I no longer have health insurance because I was laid off in July. Even if I would consider it, I am NOT eligible for state aid because I receive unemployment. I AM eligibile for a private HMO but have to wait through a 7 month “grace” period.

So with that said …

This past Wednesday, The Good Doctor’s husband came into the shop for turkey. Chief explains that he doesn’t have the turkey that The Good Doctor’s husband likes because I’ve been sick as a dog and without me in the shop or doing the running around, everything is on a skeleton.

The Good Doctor’s husband asks what’s wrong.. Chief goes into my litany of symptoms… and the Good Doctor’s husband tells Chief to have me call ASAP and they’ll fit me in.

So Chief calls me and I am SO NOT A HAPPY CAMPER. I don’t like going to doctors. He knows this but OBVIOUSLY is more concerned about my well being then I am. But now I’m in a bind because it’s The Good Doctor. Who is not only a super sweet person but a really good customer and since Chief had to open his big fat mouth and they’ll willing to fit me in.. I have to call.

Fuck.

It was around lunch time so I figured I’d wait an hour before I call. I tell him this.. he seems satisfied and I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Until my cell phone rang.

Until my cell phone rand that The Good Doctor’s name came up on the caller id.

Fuck! He gave them my freakin’ number.

He knows me SO well!

Wind up is is that I couldn’t be seen until Thursday at 11:15am.

I immediately call Chief and chastised him on giving out my cell phone number. But he knew the deal and was just glad that I made the appointment.

He wanted to come with me but since my appointment was at the start of his lunch rush, I told him I could go at it alone. I figured I’d be feeling better by the next day anyway and also, I didn’t want him there when they weighed me.

Trivial girly stuff.. but it is what it is so what can I tell you.

I actually am NOT feeling any better at the time of my appointment. And as I’m sitting in The Good Doctor’s waiting room I am suddenly overcome by the feeling of passing out. I only ALMOST passed out once and it wasn’t a nice feeling. It was so bad that I couldn’t even hold the pen to fill out the paperwork.

So I get all girly and sniffly and call Chief and tell him that I need him. The shop is only a few blocks away and he was there in an instant. And of course, as soon as he got there I started to feel better and told him he could leave. Of course, he looked at me like I was insane but I knew his mind was on the store and missing the lunch rush money and I started to feel guilty that I had even called him in the first place. But he felt that his place was with me so he stayed.

When we finally got called into the exam room and The Good Doctor started to exam me, and based on what I was telling her she says that there is a very real possibility that I contracted the Pig Virus :: H1N1 to all you non-rednecks :: and that if I had come in sooner she could have given me something that would have made me better faster.

Wonderful. What the hell can I tell you.

She then asked if I smoked. If Chief wasn’t there I would have lied and said that I was able to quit xx months ago or get all giddy and excited by telling her I HAVE XX DAYS CLEAN! but I couldn’t because he was there and so when I told her that I did, OMG.. her reaction was SO FREAKIN’ OVER THE TOP.

I mean.. ok. I know smoking is bad for you. Worse then bad. I get it. I really, really do. I know I’m setting myself up for all kinds of horrible things. And I’m NOT justifying it. I swear, I’m not. But she laid into me SO hard and SO fierce that I really just wanted say LOOK BITCH, CAN WE FOCUS ON THE PIG VIRUS HERE?

Seriously.. I felt like I was in one of the Scared Straight movies that they show teenagers about prison life.

She pulls out this paper with information on the patch and the gum and the things you suck on that will help you quit smoking and wouldn’t get off the subject until I agreed to use one of the above to stop. I played along and went with the things you suck on because they had a coffee flavored one.

The worse part of it all… is that when she gave me the inhaler medicine and the nasal spray.. she proceeded to tell me how much they would cost if I had to go to a pharmacy and get them and that it’s just a waste to give them to me if I’m not going to stop smoking. Then she proceeds to tell me that:

• I shouldn’t even be seeing you because you don’t have insurance and it’s a big liability
• If the president’s healthcare goes through, you wouldn’t even get treatment if you had cancer because you smoke.

Now.. ok.. so since when is getting paid in cash for an office visit more of a liability then being paid for an office visit by an insurance company?

I’ve worked both sides of health care for the past 23 years :: until I got laid off :: so I know how everything works .. and trust me, it’s not the way it’s being presented to the masses.

But I’m not getting into that.. I’m too exhausted and spent to go into all that now. Maybe later.

Anyway.. so she gives me the 200.00 a month inhaler and the 150.00 nasal spray :: but come one, they were samples and didn’t cost her anything :: and then writes me a script for 7 antibiotic pills that cost me 108.00.

I know she didn’t mean to make me feel like I was a dredge of society. But she did.. she made me feel like a failure because I didn’t have health insurance. She made me feel like I was just someone who was coping free medicine. She made me feel like I wasn’t up to her standard and the only reason why she lowered herself to treat me is because her husband loves Chief’s turkey.

She literally had me in tears and I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there.

On the way home, I told Chief that I absolutely hated him for making me go through with appointment and it was the kind of hate that would never be forgiven.

He said that was fine, as long as I was around long enough to hate him he didn’t care.

Now here’s the thing.. if you want to discuss it or debate it or whatever you can go right ahead but I’m not going to partake. I’ll just leave my 2 cents here for y’all to mull over:

If healthcare is going to be re-vamped, then it needs to be REVAMPED. You can’t half step this one. It’s so bad.. and so corrupt that it literally has to be restructured as a whole.. not bits and pieces of it.

Health Insurance should only be for long term treatments, surgeries, pregnancies and stuff like that. Everything else should be fee for service. You go to the doctors, you pay the doctor visit. If one doctor charges 50.00 a visit, then go to the one that charges 35. The fact that doctor’s do NOT see uninsured people only puts more strain on emergency rooms. We, as a country, are used to having things FAST. And I think because of that, we’ve forgotten when we really need to see a doctor. I can’t tell you how many people sat in the ER complaining of a sore throat.. or an earache.. or something really, really minor. All that did was tie up the ER and waste resources.

If the government is going to model health care on a foreign country, then they should model Italy’s. And I’m not just saying that because I’m Italian.. I’m saying that because I have relatives in Italy and we’ve had this discussion. No system is perfect. Not everybody’s “needs” will be met but we need to move away from what we think we are entitled to and get back to the way things were before we were indoctrinated with insurance is king.

Kids have all inclusive coverage from birth to age 16 .. the elderly are covered from 67 (I believe) on up.. again .. all inclusive. Or 70. I forget.

But doesn’t that make sense?

And how about this? If the government is SO amped on getting involved in this and instead of baiting and switching or money this or money that.. just open freakin’ clinics so that people who can’t afford private health care and who aren’t eligible for medicaid have a place to go to get care if they need it.

Oh.. and welfare? Yea.. make people work for it. Clean the streets.. scrub graffeti .. do what people who get community service have to do.. board up old houses for Christ sake.. something. Anything.

Benjamin Franklin said it best:

I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed…that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

Okay.. I think the meds are kicking in and I’m getting all scattered over here. My apologies.. I’ll end my rant now!

So far we’ve spent a couple of months putting together our LIFE LAYOUT, our vision of the future.  And last month was all about being practical, how you can finance your dream.  This month, though, is not about money.  It’s about you.

While you’re running about preparing for the holidays, you will be able to come here to focus on peace, joy, play, and spirituality.   We’ll talk about mindfulness and tapping into your intuition – the storehouse of your life experience.  We’ll continue the conversation about values that we began while you were creating your LIFE LAYOUT.

You have a dream to realize if you are to live the life you have envisioned.  This is the month to step inside yourself and fortify.  And have some fun doing it.

Don’t miss a single post, including some guest posts I know you’ll enjoy reading:  Subscribe to Re-Do You! by Email

A comic taken from Sandbox World titled "The Death of the Newspaper"

In recent years, it seems that the world of newspapers has been slowly evolving from the awkwardly sized, poorly printed, four-color, tangible version into something a little less physical: the online newspaper. Furthermore, with the rapidly growing popularity of personal computers, netbooks, social media and the ability to get high-speed Internet in the most remote of areas of the world using tools like BlackBerrys and iPhones, it seems that more and more newspaper companies are now offering their services in a digital format, which, for some, is far more popular and more easily accessible than its printed counterpart.

The industry has already seen major strides in this direction and has even had some papers switch from a daily or thrice weekly to printing twice per week and creating a strong presence on the Web. A prime example of this includes AnnArbor.com, which was originally known as “The Ann Arbor News” but has since changed its nomenclature to fits its new persona of being one of the digital hotspots to keep up to date on Ann Arbor, Mich. In addition to constantly being updated with news, the Web site is also home to dozens of professional, legitimate bloggers informing the public on a myriad of topics and trends.

Many other newspapers, such as “The New York Times,” “The Washington Post” and “USA Today,” have also created a strong online presence, as well as started using social media tools like Twitter, which provides headlines and links to stories 140 characters at a time. And as long as people keep getting their news online, it can be speculated that these new venues for news delivery will only increase in popularity and demand and ultimately take over the print versions.

It must be stated, however, that even though the news world is seeing an increase in online activity, it’s not quite ready to make the jump from this new version of both digital and print to strictly digital for one reason: dead presidents and Benjamin Franklin.

Even if this switch to digital makes it seem like the newspaper is dying, rest assured, it isn’t. And even though a vast quantity of news junkies get their fix strictly digitally, the majority of profits at newspaper companies still come from printed advertisements. The same is true for magazines, which at times, seem to have more advertisements that actual content in them and can seem more like a catalog than an actual magazine. It’s because of the monies secured from printed advertisements that until the online ad profits surpass them, newspapers must remain in print, even if it is only one or two times per week.

Furthermore, it must be noted that the world may not be ready for the Internet to be the only place for it to get its news. Even though journalists are some of the least respected professionals in the world, the bloggers who make up the Wild Wild West of the Internet should be even less trusted and, undoubtably and unfortunately, bring down the value of the newspaper in any form; the main reason being: Anybody can be a blogger, and bloggers can write and say whatever they want without knowing any better, which often boils down to sensationalism and entertainment to attract followers. And with the plethora of bloggers out there, it makes it that much more difficult for a country composed mainly of undereducated citizens and a great deal of illegal immigrants to determine what’s true and factual and what’s not, which is why journalists can often be found checking up on bloggers and cleaning up their mistakes.

Until the world is ready to make the jump to online only, given that advertisers are willing to dump billions of dollars into zeros and ones, the print with digital counterpart seems like a sweet deal. And until that day comes, journalists can keep being journalists and janitors on the side, instead of just janitors, cleaning up the proverbial word vomit of bloggers.

Silence Dogood here. This week’s Frugal Living Tip is about clipping coupons. Well, not exactly. Luddites that we are, here at Hawk’s Haven I still clip coupons from the circulars in our local paper. (My beloved mama, who despised coupon-clipping as a massive waste of time, must be turning in her grave.) But this week, the paper featured an interesting story on getting the most from e-coupons. (Read the whole story, “A new generation of penny pinchers” by Carolyn Bigda, online at www.themorningcall.com.)

According to the article, the two big online coupon sites are Coupons.com and Shortcut.com. In order to print the e-coupons, you have to download free software from each site. (Gads.) But apparently plenty of people are: In the first five months of 2009, consumers saved $300 million using Coupons.com coupons.

Now, however, Coupons.com has launched a user-friendly feature that is sensible to the point of being awesome. I quote: “There’s nothing worse than clipping coupons and later forgetting to use them at the store. [Well, I could think of a few worse things.---Silence] So Coupons.com has recently launched a feature allowing you to load coupons from its site onto your store loyalty card. At checkout, simply swipe the card and the coupons automatically get deducted from your bill.” The bad news is that, at this point, only Safeway-owned stores are honoring the card coupons, and not all brands are included. (Besides Safeway, stores accepting the card coupons include Dominick’s and Tom Thumb, none of which are in our area.) The good news is that Coupons.com expects other chains and manufacturers to jump on the bandwagon.

Given the price of printer ink, I think this is a great innovation. No printouts, no downloaded software, no hassle. But I ask myself, how do you remember which coupons you’ve put on your card? Back to the good old grocery list. And yes, of course I hand-write mine.

But you can always create a custom printout grocery list like my friend Delilah does. She lists all the staples she and Chaz (and their dog Dukie) eat each week and puts check boxes next to each item, then adds blank lines at the end of the list for non-standard items. By grouping a bunch of these lists on a standard 8-by-10-inch grid, she can print out a page of them, cut them apart, and then check off the items she needs that week and add any extras, keeping the additional lists to use later. Great idea!

However you make up your list, if you’re lucky enough to be able to use the card-coupon option, I’d suggest putting an asterisk next to any items you’re planning to use the invisible coupons for. Then you won’t forget to pick up the items and also won’t forget what coupons you’ve put on the card. (Make sure you note next to the item if you have to buy a certain number or size for the coupon to be valid.)

The article listed another resource I’d never heard of. If you use coupons, you probably try, as I do, to combine them with store sales for maximum savings. But if you’re not sure what’s going to be on sale, apparently there are online sites that actually list coupon/sales matches at specific stores. Check out CommonsenseWithMoney.com, DealSeekingMom.com, and Hip2Save.com. Whoa, who’d'a thunk?! I guess you really can find practically everything on the internet if you just know where to look.

One last piece of advice. The article quoted an “expert” as saying that you’ll get the most from your coupons if you buy in advance, i.e., before you’re desperate for something and have to rush out and buy it no matter how much it costs. So true. Last week, I was frantic. I’d run out of soy and tamari sauce and was planning to make my marvelous, rich Mushroom-Cashew Stroganoff, which calls for one or the other, for guests. Yikes!!! I wasn’t looking forward to paying full price for what was probably an inferior soy sauce because I lacked the time and money to buy high-end tamari or a superior aged soy sauce. Fortunately, my next-door neighbor came to my rescue and leant me her soy sauce. And then this morning I found a bottle of extremely high-quality soy sauce lurking in my liquor cabinet. Whew! But yes, buying before the need arises is a great money-saving strategy that lets you combine coupons and sales and buy at your convenience, when the price is right.

If, like my mama, you feel that clipping and using coupons is a ridiculous waste of time in comparison to the money saved, I’d like to end with a quote from our hero and blog mentor, Benjamin Franklin: “A penny saved is a penny earned.”  Combining coupons and store sales, it always cheers me up at checkout to hear the cashier tell me I’ve saved a fourth, a third, or even a half of my grocery bill. That’s one pretty penny!

            ‘Til next time,

                       Silence

An actual article from the 2009.11.30 Issue if the Washington Times National Weekly. Page 9.

(click to enlarge)

Description

30 Nov 2009: The “Three Enablers” of Obama’s usurpation of the Office of the Presidency in violation of Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution. The Congress will not look at or investigate the merits of the charges. The Courts will not hear in a trial the merits of the charges. And the Main Stream Media will not talk about the merits of the charges and discuss the Constitutional issues involved with the American people nor will they dig into Obama’s sealed and hidden early life records. Their ignoring the questions and concerns of the People in this matter endangers our liberty by demonstrating that those in power, once in power feel they do not have to obey the Constitution and/or listen to the People.

For more details about the lawsuit see:
http://puzo1.blogspot.com/
http://protectourliberty.org/

In honor of Ben Franklin who focused on one virtue a month each year (plus humility, which he worked on all year round on the advice of a detractor),  I’m working on one  life principle each week from Sunday to Saturday.  Will you join me?

This month we’ve been focusing on counting pennies, which is definitely rewarding.  But there is another currency we should be counting.  And it is even more rewarding.

Counting miracles is a way to demonstrate, first of all, that we expect them.  You don’t set about to count something that you         don’t ever expect to encounter.  But also, it’s a way to look back on a day and focus on the good parts of it.

So this week’s life principle is to keep a journal by your bed or under your pillow.  Right before you nod off, list the date and the day’s miracles.  Here’s where you will experience another reward of miracle counting:  you’ll be going to sleep with the best of the day on your mind – a recipe for sweet dreams.

At the end of the month, or whenever you need a pick-me-up, flip back through the pages.  You will be continually amazed at the number of little moments of joy you experience.  On even the most ordinary day.

Tip:  Ask the kids for a moleskin journal.  The big bookstores all have them.  They are soft little books worthy of keeping your miracles.  Each year start a new book.  Save your books in a place where you keep treasured family souvenirs.  Your children, whose names will surely be part of their contents, will cherish them long after you are gone.

What’s a miracle?  We probably won’t be doing much counting if we limit our miracles to those happenings that involve claps of thunder, bolts of lightning, and common objects transforming into nuggets of gold.  But, if you are an adult who drives and has a tendency to leave a few minutes later than you should, and you score a parking place just outside the building in which you have an appointment that took six weeks to book, you know right off the bat.  That is a miracle.

Some of my favorite miracles – that occur just enough times to maintain their miracle status, after all if they happened all the time, they would not be miracles, would they? – include:

• Finally remembering a person’s name right at the second you are forced to use it for the first time at a party
• The dog being able to “hold it” even though I’m home an hour late
• Finding a little piece of pumpkin pie in the frig after all the kids are packed and gone
• The test that came back negative

Sold the unused treadmill in a week?  Finally cleaned out the hall closet?  Your teen offered to do the dishes?  Smiled when you wanted to strangle?  Miracles, all!

But, who’s keeping track?  That would be you.

Week 8:  Tally your miracles