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May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
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Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
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Jewish World Review
Money never sleeps, but it does pass out
By
Jim Mullen
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Where did all the money go that we used to spend developing vacation pictures? Not that I can afford a vacation anymore, but back when my house was worth three times what I paid for it, I'd come back with rolls of film, drop them off at the local pharmacy and pick them up a few days later for $7.38 a roll. They're all in photo albums now, neatly labeled and titled, at the bottom of some closet under some exercise equipment. It would depress me to see some younger, better-looking, wealthier version of myself.
I've had a digital camera for seven years now. It's got a chip in it that lets me put 300 shots at a time into my computer without having to pay developing charges. The digital photos will never fade; they will never curl. I can crop them, fix the red eyes, erase completely the people I don't like and insert a grove of trees where they used to be, and it's all pretty much free and fast. So where is all that money I saved?
Where did all the money go that people used to spend on fax machines and VCRs? Betamaxes started out at $2,200 in today's dollars. The blank tapes cost $15 and could hold an hour-long show. Now my cable company lets me record a hundred hours' worth of shows for $5 a month. Where is all the money I saved from that? Almost everyone I know shops in big box stores and outlet malls where everything is half off. Where is the money we save by not paying full price for 300-packs of Stella D'oro?
I quit smoking cigarettes hit $1.75 a pack. It was just too high. I couldn't afford it then and now that they're $7 or $8 dollars a pack, who can? Almost the only people I see smoking anymore are convenience store clerks who huddle up outside, beside the ice machine, taking quick drags during their breaks.
"Who could afford to smoke less than a convenience store clerk?" I asked my friend Tyler recently. He said, "Why do you think they work there? I'm not accusing, I'm just saying." I did see one man buy a pack of cigarettes last year -- he paid with a check. So where is all the money I have saved by not smoking these past 17 years? I can't find it anywhere.
My 5-year-old car gets 30 miles to the gallon. When I first learned to drive, my car got 12 miles to the gallon, and I had to put a quart of oil in it every 200 miles. Where is the money I'm saving by being energy efficient? Sure, gas costs more than it did, but I get paid more than I did, too. What about e-mail? I haven't bought stamps in a dog's age. When was the last time I bought a suit? When was the last time I bought a tie? Just the money I used to spend on dry cleaning should pay my mortgage.
With all the money I'm saving from photos, cigarettes, fax machines, e-mail and outlet malls, I should be rich. Well, I've got to get off this phone -- I only get 1,500 minutes a month on my plan. I don't want to use them up on the first day. Again. Bye.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
Jim Mullen is the author of "It Takes a Village Idiot: Complicating the Simple Life" and "Baby's First Tattoo."
Previously:
President Trump kept it classy
Stalking your college kid won't change a thing
Putting my life in Jeopardy
Mo' government, mo' problems
iLostIt
Dressed for excess
Expert tease
The mysteries of Jersey
You are a toilet, where am I?
Don't we all cheat at the game of life?
What happens when I forget where Google is?
Don't let the doorman hit you on the way out
Picasso fiasco
Purple (hair) Daze
Let me hear your body talk
Working from work
Babies deserve clean restrooms, too
3-year-old bear-killers are a thing of the past
Money-making ideas on the fly
Collecting and hoarding
Chain of fools
Please come pick up your acting awards, ESPN commentators, you've earned them
You've been superpoked by the U.S. gov't
e-Readin', e-Writin' and e-Rithmatic
A pose by any other name
Warning: Column contains 2010 spoilers
He loves only gold, only gold
Think about direction, wonder why …
Flushing your money down a diamond-studded toilet
More like wack Friday
The good, the ad and the ugly
The desert of the real
Let books be large and in charge
I was insulting people way before the Internet
GPS drill sergeant: Left, right, left!
Butterfly in the sky, you make winds go twice as high
Music to my ears it's not
You don't light up my life
Fair or not: Country living is far from Little House
A parable for the ages
Top 100 Cable news stories of the century
Green dumb
A developing story
Thinking outside the lunch box
What's good for the goose is good for the scanner
Newspapers will survive, but network TV?
A really big show of generation gaps
When pigs flu
The reports of our decline have been greatly exaggerated
Mergers and admonitions
Invest in gold: little, yellow, different
Stuck in Folsom Penthouse
Collecting karma
Setting loose the creative juice
It's all in the numbers
You're damaging your brain with practical skills
The real rat pack
The unspeakable luxury of the Park-O-Matic
Gross-ery shopping
© 2009, NEA
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