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“Come home this minute and clean your room!” my dad shouted from the back porch. I reluctantly left the playground at the park behind our house and stomped adolescently to my bedroom. There, amidst the rubble, was a brand new Santa Fe bicycle! Dad’s smile revealed his ruse, and I spent the next several summers […]

Sometimes different is good. Other times you don’t want to be different. We want to blend in. Remember high school? Being different was death. You wanted the same kind of shoes the popular kids wore, modeled the same haircut and mimicked the same cool way they carried a comb in their pocket. You followed their […]

Everyone loves a bargain. Discovering designer sweaters for just a few dollars, fixing and flipping falling-down houses and stealth bidding for online auctions are the modern day equivalent of hunting and gathering. What makes a bargain a bargain? Is it the price? No doubt about it, price is an important factor in determining a bargain. […]

Dead ends. Loose ends. Wit’s end. Split ends. In a furniture store there are many endings. For the salesperson, it ends when they hand the customer their receipt. For the warehouse, it ends when they hand the customer their furniture. For accounting, it ends when the customer hands them their money. But for Ms. Jones, […]

Six sure bets in life: Death and taxes. Summer and winter. Seedtime and harvest. The laws of business parallel the laws of nature. The farmer plants a seed and waits for it to grow. It’s a no brainer, right? But do you do the same in your business? What are you planting, and are you […]

Growing pains. Growing up. Outgrown. Overgrown. Growth pattern. There’s a growth pattern in humans that applies to businesses as well. People hook up and conceive a business plan. The plan is under wraps as planning, financing and sourcing slowly develop over the course of several months. It’s then birthed in a grand opening celebration and […]

You would expect a magazine called “Green” to be printed on recycled paper, but it’s not. It’s not even printed. It’s a “digital digest” available only online. Now that’s green! Green is cropping up in the produce section on organically grown products. It’s all over the hardware store, with “Eco Options” labeling for products that […]

Family man. Runs in the family. In the family way. Family tree. Family matters. Americana is all about family. We’ve even stretched it to include our “work family” and our “school family” or our “church family.” Despite efforts to redefine it, we all have our own personal definition. What does “family” mean to Ms. Jones? […]

Ahhh, romance. Your heart twitters, your stomach flitters. You primp and preen for hours before each encounter. You write pithy poems and gaze google-eyed into space. You’re in love with love. Slip a ring on your finger and a diaper bag over your shoulder and watch what happens. Heart-stopping fantasy passion becomes toilet-stopping reality. Ms. […]

Thelma Ritter’s first movie role was a brief, uncredited part as a frustrated mother unable to find the toy that Kris Kringle promised to her son. Santa saves the day, however, by telling her that Schoenfeld’s has the fire engine little Peter wants. Kris later tells another mother that Macy’s rival, Gimbels, has better skates […]