I’ll let you in on a little secret: I grew up hating beets. Reflecting back on it, I think I was only offered canned or pickled beets. Fast-forward to adulthood and my experiences with farming. I quickly discovered that beets are easy to grow; their greens are sweet, crisp and delicious in salads. A revelation! Raw beets are amazing – sliced matchstick style for salads, marinated, I’ve even taken to roasting them. This recipe is easy to throw together with your food processor. The nutty pumpkin seeds add a little crunch (plus iron, potassium calcium and protein), and a few microgreens add nice flavor and texture. This colorful and healthy salad even gets better and more flavorful over a couple of days in the fridge.
New leaves uncurling on the trees, the whirring of the lawn mower and the smell of freshly-cut grass, mornings filled with chirping birds … spring has finally arrived and we’re sliding into summer! After a long Michigan winter, it’s so fun to dig out all of our warm-weather clothes. Goodbye turtlenecks, hello tank tops!
When June finally arrives, there is nothing better than spending time outdoors, especially when the weather begins to heat up and the first day of summer is just around the corner. In 2019, the U.S. Senate designated the month of June as Great Outdoors Month. According to nps.gov, observance of Great Outdoors Week (the first week in June) began under President Clinton in 1998 and has grown under subsequent administrations into a month-long celebration.
When Americans vacation in foreign countries, they look forward to experiencing everything they can’t see and do at home. They enjoy learning about new cultures, how the natives of that country live, the food they eat, their style of dress, entertainment and leisure time activities.
As the labor market has been gutted by COVID (early retirements and twenty-somethings who got used to the government sending them paychecks for 18 months and are not willing to work), employers are having to pay significantly higher wages and offer new and exciting benefits to coax people back into the workforce. One of these benefits is an employer-sponsored 401k. This plan is a tax- efficient way for employees to save for retirement through employee payroll deferral. One of the main benefits to having a 401k is the ability to defer your current income until a time in the future, typically during retirement, when your income is lower. Your deferred payroll deposits are not included in your current taxable income and are allowed to be invested in different markets and grow tax-deferred, until you withdraw those funds when you retire. Another added benefit to a 401k plan is that often, employers will match the contribution you make. Then, this type of savings plan is even more beneficial for the employee and becomes a very valuable part of their employment package. Some employers, in an effort to try to retain and recruit good employees, have instituted match policies of up to 10% of the salary percentage that employees put away on their own. That is essentially a 10% increase in pay if you stay with the employer for a specific period of time, as laid out in the plan’s vesting schedule.
I have always had a soft spot for lifeguards. It probably traces all the way back to my very first summer when my mother, a lifeguard at the time, taught me how to swim.
During WW2, simple calculating/tabulating machines including the first computer facsimiles were used to catalog soldiers, people and munitions by the use of punch cards and other apparatus. After the war, the United States Army developed the ENIAC system and used it to calculate artillery firing tables and perform functions related to thermonuclear weaponry. Weighing nearly 30 tons, the unit utilized 18,000 vacuum tubes, numerous diodes, relays, resistors, etc. At a cost of $5 million of today’s money, it was too expensive and cumbersome to reproduce for personal or independent business applications.
Suppose a President of the United States proposed raising taxes on everyone, rich and poor, by 8.5%. And suppose this would not be a one-time 8.5% tax increase; taxes would be increased by 8.5% every single year.
The first time I visited Spain, I went with my mother. She had been before, one stop among many on a European cruise. She had only gotten a glimpse of Barcelona, though, just the slightest taste of what the city had to offer, so when she mentioned the idea of venturing back, this time with me accompanying her I of course, accepted immediately – especially as it was on her dime.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was included in the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act and intended to hold up to 700 million barrels of oil in the event of an emergency. The SPR was created following the 1973 Middle East Oil Embargo, when the price of crude oil tripled over six months, leading to a severe economic recession. The SPR is supposed to buffer against such disruptions that might otherwise lead to an economic or national security emergency.
Imagine if you will a city down on its luck – holding on to the grand days of its past when parades filled the streets with cheer and every hand was full, now left forgotten, abandoned by prosperity to fend for itself. For the people in this city and its hard streets, hope is hard to come by, a catastrophe seemingly waiting around every corner. Now cue a movement, a feeling, a breath of fresh air full of inspiration and the world begins to change. The flowers grow, the children learn and the sun shines highlighting a path to a new horizon, a new destiny. What happens when a community walks that path together? Come with me on a voyage through another dimension – a dimension of sight, a dimension of sound, a dimension of mind. A voyage to a place without prejudice, fear or poverty.
