Archive
Rebranding Trash Fish
For centuries, fishermen around Cape Cod caught…you guessed it: cod. Cod and haddock. The ocean provided a seemingly endless supply of these fish — until a few years ago. These days, there aren't so many cod or haddock left for fishermen to catch. Now, if you go to...
Samsung’s Complaints Department
Striking Gold for Doing Wall Street’s Bidding
First, Wall Street's government bailout restored the banksters who wrecked our economy to full prosperity. Now, it's paying off very handsomely for the bank overseers who orchestrated the bailout. For example, as chairman of the Federal Reserve for eight years, Ben...
This Week in OtherWords: May 21. 2014
This week in OtherWords, I explain why thousands of Lindy Hoppers are celebrating Frankie Manning's legacy, Martha Burk weighs in on the growth of low-wage jobs for women, and Joel Kendrick puts the latest sports LGBT milestone into perspective. Do you want to make...
The Snide World of Sports
When Michael Sam became the first openly gay football player drafted into the NFL, he also made sports TV history by kissing his boyfriend on camera. And he has no harsher critics than his fellow athletes. The public is rapidly growing more tolerant of LGBT Americans,...
Scrimping on Women’s Pay
Republicans in the Senate blocked a vote on the minimum wage earlier this month — no surprise there. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee was the only Republican who stood aside. But don't believe the issue is dead. Democrats will make sure that raising the minimum wage...
Why Tea Partiers Should Back Minimum Wage Raise
If tea-partying Republicans were politically strategic animals, they'd support President Barack Obama's call to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. I know that sounds insane. But as that GOP faction struggles against the Republican Party's establishment, perhaps...
Saved by Swing
Fifteen years ago, I'd boxed myself into a job and lifestyle that didn't suit me. Lindy Hop legend Frankie Manning led me to dance my way to a better place. I was covering global crises as a financial reporter. Writing snappy articles about soulless International...
Derailing the Dynasty Train
Don't feel bad if you were busy and missed the buzz around the new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It's not every day that a 685-page book about wealth inequality written by a French economist lands on best-seller lists next to Danielle Steele's steamy new...
Man Can’t Live on Cabbage Alone
I ran into an acquaintance recently and he told me he'd started seeing a new nutrition expert. "You know what?" he said, "It turns out I'm gluten intolerant." OK. Him and everyone else. I told him I was glad he found an expert who could help him. A week later I saw...