Two of the top ten reasons that younger women say that they marry older men are, first, they have a better read on those with a more promising future, even if it is shorter; and second, if they sprain their ankle they can use their husband’s cane. Pretty funny, but not unlike a couple of the underlying...

Johnny Carson, one-time king of late night television, once quipped, “There’s only one fruitcake in the U.S. and it’s passed around from family to family.” The joke works because many don’t like fruit cake and, consequently, pass on any received to others at the next holiday season. The...

Any fan of the novelist Tom Clancy is probably familiar with these words uttered by the wife of his chief protagonist, Jack Ryan.  Ryan is constantly needling Dr. Caroline “Cathy” Ryan about her compulsive habit of making notes about everything as a method for reminder and also a simple record of events. She...

The control that the artist Prince assiduously maintained over his creative property during his life was tighter than a rusted nut. YouTube searches turned up precious little for those who tried to listen to his recordings and concerts on the cheap. Given such attention to detail it, it surprised...

The business world abounds with stories of the entrepreneurs who managed success building an undercapitalized venture largely because they made little or nothing in the early years, choosing rather to channel revenues back into the growth of the business. But there are often unsung heroes in these...

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander; or so we are told.  But adages aren’t always truisms, so unfortunately the conventional wisdom behind them must be applied categorically and with ginger – especially when building financial justification for a case. The coverage guideline a carrier...

The title’s allusion to folk music is appropriate when you consider that the results achieved by exchanging coverage might be music to the ears of a lot of folks! Not since the “flight to quality” during the 1990s have there been conditions in the economy and the industry that could serve as such...

Way back in time I had the good fortune to work in a firm whose in-house CPA happened to be the author of the joke column for a well-known accountant publication. He well understood the contradiction between the nature of his editorial role and the droll reputation his profession has concerning things...

During and after his tenure as President of Harvard University, Charles Eliot liked to contend that the essentials of a liberal education could be gotten by simply reading fifteen minutes a day from a selection of great books that would all fit on a five-foot shelf. If so, you wonder why people line...

There are three maxims that every trial attorney takes into the courtroom when going before a jury: If you don’t have the facts, then pound on the law; If you don’t have the law, then pound on the facts; And if you don’t have either, then pound on the table. Among the three (the facts, the law or the table)...