No one is more honest about personal finance than author and TV personality Suze Orman. Brutally honest. I love hearing what she has to say, even though I don’t always follow through with her advice, but most of it seems to be a lot of common sense. According to Orman, your daily stop to pick up a cup of dark roast or a cappuccino is a habit you need to break. It’s a “want,” not a “need,” and it’s costing you a ton of money. Her thoughts are that you could put that $100 per month, (let’s say you stop five days a week and spend $5 including your tip), then you could put that money in a Roth IRA at a 12% rate of return, then after 40 years, you would have close to $1 million. Her figures. Not mine. She says, “You are peeing $1 million down the drain as you are drinking that coffee.” A very interesting way to look at retirement. 😊 Or I guess, you can just hang around, drink coffee, and hope for a great inheritance.
You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks. – Joel Plaskett
Country superstar Chris Stapleton has a friendship with Lucchese Bootmaker that started ten years ago, but the design partnership of the Lucchese x Chris Stapleton Collection just launched online and in stores this month. There are six different boot styles with collection lines named The Old Friend, San Antonio and The Original, because Stapleton has a soft spot for vintage, 100-year-old patterns and designs. In return, a portion of sales from Lucchese x Chris Stapleton purchases will benefit the Outlaw State of Kind, an umbrella foundation that funnels donations to Feeding America and Habitat for Humanity, among other organizations. You can shop, touch and feel the collection at First Colony Mall in Sugarland.
It’s July 4th! The only day of the year you might actually see a person look up from their cell phones.
7-year-old Scooter won the 2023 Worlds’ Ugliest Dog Contest. He is a Chinese Crested, his tongue hangs loose from his mouth, and he was born with deformed hind legs that are reversed, facing the opposite direction, brought in by a breeder as a pup to be euthanized. For nearly 50 years, this contest has promoted the adoption of dogs, and celebrates the imperfections that make all dogs special and unique. One judge said, “In the cutest way possible, he kind of reminds me of a hairy hippopotamus.” Scooter spent years walking on just his two front legs (you should see the video) before a recent fundraiser helped acquire a two-wheel cart that improves his mobility. Isn’t it a shame that we don’t embrace the fact that ALL dogs AND people are special and unique!
May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right. – Peter Marshall
A woman in Indiana was robbed at gunpoint outside her home while getting the mail. The robber then asked her if she had a boyfriend and wanted her to connect with him on Facebook so he could pay her back for the money he stole. He gave her his name, then pointed to his Facebook profile and asked the woman to add him as a friend, which she did because then she thought he would then leave… which he did. It gets better. The robber accepted the friend request and started sending messages to the woman, including asking her out. She later identified him in a police lineup.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a research university in NY, is suing a cleaning service after one of its janitors destroyed over 20 years of lab research when he switched off circuit breakers, which provided electricity to a freezer with all the research inside. It seems that there was a consistent annoying alarm going off on the freezer. A sign on the door of the freezer door said, “THIS FREEZER IS BEEPING AS IT IS UNDER REPAIR. PLEASE DO NOT MOVE OR UNPLUG IT. NO CLEANING REQUIRED IN THIS AREA. YOU CAN PRESS THE ALARM/TEST MUTE BUTTON FOR 5-10 SECONDS IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MUTE THE SOUND.”
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Actor Adrienne Barbeau of Maude is 78. Drummer Frank Beard of ZZ Top is 74. Singer Graham Russell of Air Supply is 73. Singer Donnie Van Zant of Van Zant is 71. Actor Malcolm McDowell of Clockwork Orange is 80. Singer Dennis Locorriere of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show is 74. Comedian Tim Allen is 70. Actor Ally Sheedy is 61. Actor Phylicia Rashad is 75. She is now dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Actor Kathleen Turner is 69. In addition to many acting parts, Turner’s voice roles included Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988. Country singer Doug Stone is 67. “I’d Be Better Off (In a Pine Box)”. Singer-dancer Paula Abdul is 61. Singer Lionel Richie is 74. Songwriter and co-lead of the Motown group Commodores; writing and recording the hit singles Easy, Sail On, Three Times a Lady and Still”, with the group before his departure. In 1980, he wrote and produced the US Billboard Hot 100 number one single “Lady” for Kenny Rogers.
The fake satirical story headline read, “Garth Brooks Booed Off Stage (because of his stance on tolerance) at 123rd Annual Texas Country Jamboree,” in Hambriston, Texas. The link to the “news” website of the Dunning-Kruger Times states that all its content is “parody, satire, and tomfoolery.” First off, there is no Hambriston, Texas, or Texas Country Jamboree. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was duped and reposted it along with some comments. Remember, just because it’s on the internet, Facebook, Twitter or from even your next-door neighbor, it doesn’t make it true or repeatable. Texas has plenty of real problems (like the grid) that we need to be taking care of.
This past week, I was searching for information on recent deaths of interest or significance. You know, the people that YOU like to read about in this column. Throughout the previous couple of days, I had come across Robert Hanssen, FBI Agent Found Dead in Colorado Prison a couple of times, but I thought to myself, who is interested in a dead spy or FBI agent? Then, this evening after we printed and delivered the paper, I sat down and saw an email that had come in titled Understandably by Bill Murphy Jr. about “The Stripper and the Spy.” I was intrigued (but mostly because I thought is said Bill Murray. Duh.) I read the article. The story was about a real-life spy engaging in what was said to be a secret but nonsexual relationship with an exotic dancer whom he supported with cars, gifts, money and even took with him on FBI trips. Long story short, she eventually did drugs, was arrested, they parted ways, and he was eventually arrested. It’s a pretty great story. For 21 years, through the terms of four presidents and three FBI directors, this guy fooled them all. He has been the subject of multiple books, and films, including a television movie in 2002 in which he was played by William Hurt, and a movie in 2007 called Breach. Where have I been?!? This guy grew up obsessed with James Bond, collected spy gadgets, and even opened a Swiss bank account.
Robert P. Hanssen, former FBI agent who spied for Moscow off and on for more than two decades, during and after the Cold War, in one of the most damaging espionage cases in American history, was recently discovered dead in his prison cell in Colorado. He was 79.
Ryan Seacrest has been named to replace Pat Sajak on the Wheel of Fortune in September. *An airport ground worker died last week when he was sucked into an engine of a jet that had just landed at San Antonio Airport. It is being treated as suicide. *The passengers likely knew the hull was starting to crack on the Titan submarine. Augh. A former passenger said the sub once malfunctioned and couldn’t reach the surface, so crew had to rock from side-to-side to nudge weights loose. Kanye West’s 46th birthday party was a little bizarre – they served sushi and sashimi on nude women’s bodies instead of serving platters. Evidently this is a Japanese practice called nyotaimori. His 9-year-old daughter, North, decorated her face with fake blood and wore rubber boots. There must have been a theme. ☹
Thank you to friends and customers; the Dinglers for the bags of vegetables, Kim for the green beans, Pat for the delicious tomato pie and eggs, Debra for the zucchini bread and Karla for the beautiful, named heirloom tomatoes – true works of art. My sandwiches have been so delicious lately. Jessica, our post lady for checking in on Teller, always with treats. We are lucky folks here at The Source Weekly.
Jack Hanna, the zookeeper and Hollywood legend that Johnny Carson and David Letterman loved to have on late night TV, now has advanced Alzheimer’s and no longer recognizes his family. I loved watching him. Tom Brokaw was diagnosed with multiple myeloma 10 years ago and wasn’t expected to live as long as he has. Liza Minnelli has not been seen in public for almost a year, is receiving around-the-clock care, and friends fear that she has dementia. I don’t mean to be such a downer, but this should be a reminder to make every day, your favorite day! Life is short.
“What day is it?”
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.
Yes, it’s Florida again. A central Florida woman (24) faces arson and child neglect charges after she left her two children (2 & 4) in a car for an hour while shoplifting in a mall. That car became engulfed in flames and bystanders helped rescue her children who were burned. You know what I think! *An Australian woman made a wrong turn and got her car stuck in the mud on a remote road for five days. She was without cell service and couldn’t walk because of health issues. But she did have a bottle of wine and a little candy. That probably saved her life. And what is the moral of this story? Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy. – Benjamin Franklin
Remember S&H Green Stamps? *When you sleep on your left side, the stomach and gastric juices remain lower than the esophagus which can help to reduce heartburn and digestive upsets. *Nirvana’s frontman, Kurt Cobain, was known for smashing guitars during performances. One of those guitars just sold for $600,000. *Frankie Valli just married again at 89 in Las Vegas, a former CBS marketing executive he met in 2007. His 60-year-old bride wore white. Sweet. *Headline: Our human relatives were butchering and eating each other 1.45 million years ago. *In the 20th century, the Earth’s axis has shifted about four inches per year, according to NASA. Our human thirst for groundwater has sucked so much liquid from subsurface reserves that it’s affecting our Earth’s tilt. Fire, Floods, Storms… pay attention. *A fan threw a bag of their mother’s ashes at Pink during a concert. “This is your mom?” Pink can be heard asking in a video as she picked up the bag. “I don’t know how I feel about this.”
National Hurricane Center: There are two disturbances in the Atlantic currently as we go to print. There are 12 to 17 named tropical cyclones predicted this hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean. The six-month season runs from June 1 to November 30. The 21 storm names for this year are: Arlene (ar-LEEN), Bret (bret), Cindy (SIN-dee), Don (dahn), Emily (EH-mih-lee), Franklin (FRANK-lin), Gert (gert), Harold (HAIR-uld), Idalia (ee-DAL-ya), Jose (ho-ZAY), Katia (KAH-tyah), Lee (lee), Margot (MAR-go), Nigel (NY-juhl), Ophelia (o-FEEL-ya), Philippe (fee-LEEP), Rina (REE-nuh), Sean (shawn), Tammy (TAM-ee), Vince (vinss), Whitney (WHIT-nee)… much simpler names since the difficult 2020 year of Isaias which no one could pronounce. Storm names alternate between male and female and are reused every six years unless a storm is particularly deadly or destructive, then its name is retired. There are no storms that start with Q, U, X, Y or Z because of a lack of usable names. A tropical storm gets a name when sustained winds reach 39 mph; it becomes a hurricane when its winds reach 74 mph. Happy 4th of July. Let’s take a break from complaining about America to celebrating America. And remember, if you drink a fifth on the fourth, you may not go forth on the fifth.
😊 LISA
Send comments to Lisa Baker at lisa@thesourceweekly.com
