When Rose’s husband died three years ago, she decided it was finally time to get her affairs in order. She wanted to keep things simple, so her plan was to deed her home and farm to her four children. She knew she wanted to keep her family out of probate court when she died, and […]
The Dangers of a Simple Deed Read More »
In July 2006, social changes in America finally prompted the editors at Merriam-Webster to add a new term to the dictionary—the Sandwich Generation. The term refers to “a generation of people who are caring for their aging parents while supporting their own children.” Statistics suggest that over one in every eight Americans between the ages
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If Marilyn Monroe were alive today, she would have celebrated her 93rd birthday on June 1, 2019. Although she was type-cast in the role of the “dumb blonde” in many of her block-buster films, she was actually much smarter than many of the young and unprepared celebrities I’ve written about in the past. Despite the
Don’t Leave Your Estate to a Stranger Read More »
Tom Hanks was wrong. There really is crying in baseball. At least there was on July 4, 1939, when Lou Gehrig addressed Yankees fans (and the world) one last time in a moving speech from Yankee Stadium. Although the purpose of his speech was to say goodbye, he opened by saying, “Fans, for the past
No Crying In Baseball Read More »
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” When Ben Franklin penned those words, he was eighty-three and, as it turned out, only five months away from death. But considering men in his day only lived thirty-six years on average, he had already beaten the odds by a long
The NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament was first played in 1939. There was no Sweet Sixteen that year or in the decade that followed because the original tournament bracket included only eight teams. In 1951, the tournament expanded to include teams from 16 schools, and since then it has grown to the field of
Pick The Right Team Read More »
On the third Monday in February, we celebrate Presidents Day. Most people think of Presidents Washington and Lincoln when they enjoy a little time off from work, but there’s no better time to remember the last message delivered by President Ronald Reagan. Reagan left the White House in January of 1989. Six years later, he
A President’s Final Message to Caregivers Read More »
February 3, 2019, marks the sixtieth anniversary of the plane crash that resulted in the untimely deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and “The Big Bopper” Richardson, three of America’s hottest rock and roll musicians at the time. If not for a perfect combination of poor scheduling, bad weather, a virus, and a coin toss,
The Day The Music Died Read More »
Do you remember the Y2K “disaster” of twenty years ago? Tension was so high that TIME magazine ran a cover asking whether this was “The end of the world!?!” with bylines including “Y2K insanity!” and “Will computers melt down? Will society?” In what was described by TIME magazine as a “ludicrously shortsighted shortcut,” computer programmers
Don’t Be Shortsighted Read More »
Johnny Cash sings a song that begins, “One day near Christmas when I was just a child, mama called us together and mama tried to smile.” Mama said, “You know the cotton crop hasn’t been too good this year. There’s just no spending money and well at least we’re all here.” In Johnny’s words, mama