Career counselors everywhere are fielding this question: Should I go to graduate school to wait out the economy and re-enter the job market with stronger credentials?

The Environmental Protection Agency briefly considered a petition to ban lead in ammunition and fishing gear.

The man at the computer keyboard was staring at the monitor when he felt a tickling sensation on his arm where a fly had landed. “Beat it,” he said and blew at it without taking his hands away from the keyboard. The fly resisted the sudden gust in its direction and stayed put.

Dave Granlund cartoon on who told more tall tales, Roger Clemens or Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).

O'Mahoney cartoon on how kids feel about going back to school.

Weekly financial Q&A, with advice on buying “toys,” military investing and financing a small business.

There is a law of the universe that says that just when you think you’ve got everything checked off your to-do list, your dog will roll in something horrifyingly disgusting and you will have to squeeze in a trip to the dog groomer.

It's been five years since Katrina struck New Orleans and broken levees loosed water and all hell on the city.

Retirees and workers have differing views of how to invest and draw income from their assets. Retirees typically share a few major issues in common. They don't like losses. They are afraid of running out of money. They are reluctant to learn new things or change their vision of what they should do with their money.

Dave Granlund cartoon on Hurricane Earl and Jason Lee's Earl.

In 1998, Major League Baseball was in trouble and losing fans fast. In the wake of the ’94-’95 strike, the biggest strike ever in professional sports, fans were disillusioned and bitter. Then something happened that changed everything: the home run chase between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire.

You can learn a lot about life just by going to the grocery store. Have you ever noticed that milk and other necessities are located in the very back of the store? Forcing you to walk all the way through the store to get what may be the only item you need allows the store to attempt to sell some less-necessary items to you on your way to the dairy aisle and back.

Some people love global positioning systems, others avoid them like the plague, and I always wonder: Are the anti- GPS people men mostly? Map fans generally?

Televised football begins this week, which means a couple things: I won’t be getting around to that list of honey-do projects posted on the refrigerator anytime soon, and my cell phone will be someplace other than at my side for the next several weekends.

Dave Granlund cartoon on the Iraq war aftermath.