Don’t Drink and Drive, Unless You Drink 12-Ounce Diet Cokes and Drive a Hybrid

We’ll, we dodged a bullet by leasing rather than buying our Toyota Highlander four years ago. We just turned it in, and even though we got hit with a $1200 disposal cost (including “excessive” wear and tear), at least we don’t have to worry about $4.00+ gasoline costs now that Karen is driving a [...]

Willpower

In today’s New York Times there is an interesting article on willpower, what influences it, and how it can be enhanced:
Interestingly, restraining our consumer spending, in the short term, may cause us to actually loosen the belts around our waists. What’s the connection? The brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in [...]

What to do When You Work from Home and Your Kid’s Sick?

In this week’s Wall Street Journal, Sara Schaefer Munoz writes about the challenges of balancing work and child care when she works from home:
In my case, TV and food worked — up to point. After an hour or two, the thrill of TV was wearing thin for my daughter and I was worried she’d slip [...]

Books to Read in 2008 from 2007

Here’s my response to a Wall Street Journal forum based on Cynthia Crossen’s best books of 2007:
Of the books I read in 2007 (too few), they couldn’t be less similar on the surface: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Epic by John Eldridge. The first is long and agnostic, and the second [...]

First, Let’s Nuke All the Video Game Programmers

I’m sure that some of my younger readers may not get the allusion to Shakespeare’s play, Henry VI (Part 2).  This is probably because they’ve spent more time visiting Second Life or playing Halo 3 than reading plays and poetry in a Brit Lit course like the one I had in high school (thanks, [...]

George Washington: Truly the Father of our Country

A great essay by Thomas Fleming in the Wall Street Journal recently on George Washington reminded yet again of the genius and humility of our nation’s first President. He truly exemplified the courage and humility so essential to great leadership:

Washington then drew from his coat a parchment copy of his appointment as commander in [...]