My family religiously observed the tradition of Sunday dinner (literally, since, as many readers know, family time is a Mormon fetish). Every other week we gathered for the whole evening⎯the grandparents, the siblings, and us, the first cousins. To say the teenaged me took these get-togethers for granted would be a huge understatement, [...]
Archive for the ‘Commerce’ category
Businesses I wish I’d started
The creator of the Frisbee died last week, age 90, a wealthy man for having adapted a popcorn tin lid into a toy. How great would that be – to invent an object beloved by millions and retire off it? Whenever I read stories about the people who become zillionaires by inventing cool stuff, I [...]
Inconspicuous consumption
Welcome to Black Friday, Whatsiters. I hope you are curled up in a post-Thanksgiving haze, browsing your favorite news sites, sipping coffee, and giving a second round of thanks that you are not battling crowds at the mall.
In October, I went to the Washington City Paper’s Crafty Bastards craft fair, which turned out to be [...]
Reefer Madness!
As it turns out, before he was able to shut down Guantanamo, and before he was able to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and before the right to universal health care was extended to every American, Barack Obama put an end to the Federal suppression of states’ rights to legalize and regulate the sale [...]
Stella investigates: the death of the newspaper and the future of journalism
Stella sat down with a nationally-acclaimed journalist to talk about the decline of the newspaper industry and the future of the craft.
I cancelled my subscription to The Washington Post earlier this year.
That makes me feel disappointed.
What are you reading?
I get the Post. I read less than I used to because I read most of [...]
Satisfaction
Lane recently contended in comments:
You go to the Apple store and you really want that new Steve Jobs gadget. (Steve Jobs is one of my pagan gods) You pay $300 for the object that has a production cost of $50. The $250 difference is the sacrifice at the altar of Apple.
And that new Apple gadget [...]
Stella investigates: the financial crisis
Stella sat down with an international economist to ask the burning questions that have not been answered by the media. Our friendly economist is the kind of guy who is very busy, because there’s a global financial crisis, yet found the time to talk to Stella over a glass of Johnnie Walker on the rocks.
Who’s [...]
Early Christmas presents for you, or last-minute gift guide? You decide.
Have you noticed that low-cost 1980s-era gifts are back all over the tee-vee set? I know that they re-appear nearly every Christmas season, but this year they seem really ramped up. Is it a sign of the recession, or simply cheesy nostalgia? Who knows? Who cares? But those annoying commercials [...]
Stella’s ten tips for cheap and cheerful holiday shopping
Today is Black Friday, which sounds like a mediaeval day of reckoning to non-Americans. Stella will not shop today and has not yet participated in any Black Friday consumer experience in nine years of living in the United States of Capitalism. She is scared of the busy mall and fortunately does not have to shop [...]
