During Chicago Ideas Week I attended Univision's seminar on "Marketing to Hispanics." This is what I learned from the data collected by Univision's marketing department. General facts There are 58 million Hispanics in the U.S. which is 18% of the total U.S....
What is happening to the meanings of "yes" and "no?" I asked someone last night if he and his companion were old friends, and he said, "No, yeah we've been friends for years." On The Daily Show, Noah Trevor asked Gloria Steinem if she thought the women's movement...
My fellow Americans, the nice story about Thanksgiving starting with the first white settlers in North America inviting the American Indians to celebrate the harvest isn't strictly true. In fact, the white people and the native people were probaby at war a lot of the...
Most Americans know the proper amount to tip on a restaurant food bill. It's 20% and anything less looks cheap and mean. That's because service industry workers in the U.S. are paid about $2.18 to $5 an hour from their employers and that's it. That's right: American...
We Americans grow up with kid-focused holidays such as Halloween and Christmas where everything is for kids: candy, decorations, special clothes, parties and games. Christmas traditions in the U.S. were originally established primarily to celebrate childhood (and make...
Do you have a co-worker who recently moved to the United States, has limited English, feels lonely and struggles with American protocols and social customs? Do you know someone who's trying to build their new life here, but needs better communication skills to get the...
Last November, I cut out sugar, grains, dairy and caffeine at the suggestion of a doctor who identified those things as contributing to my hormones being out of balance. Having gone on this type of diet a few times in my life, it's felt familiar even though it's also...
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a journalist and writer for The Atlantic. In this three-minute and 20-second video from PBS NewsHour's Brief But Spectacular series, what strikes me is his use of the word "luxury." He says, "You really can't be an African American in this...
Don't wish your life away...unless you have to. I saw this posted on Facebook recently: I responded with support for this sentiment, saying that even people who constantly long for 5:00 p.m. or Friday are self-defeatingly wishing their lives away when they should...
Released last May 2014 Katie Couric produced and narrates the documentary Fed Up, which might seem like just another film about the effects of the standard American diet on our health, but this one has a very specific and heartbreaking focus: the effects of sugar on...
Pope Francis has made it clear that he believes couples who choose not to have children are selfish. A recently published book gives insight into why choosing not to have children isn't selfish. Today I'm blogging about neither. I say let's look at the reasons people...
The other night I was at the meeting of a non-profit that works with refugees that have recently come to Chicago. The room contained about three people in their 20s, maybe three people in their 30s and three of us who were over 45. One of the young women in her 20s...
I think I've watched all five seasons of the original Twilight Zone series enough times to be able to read this book. It's Stewart Stanyard's Dimensions Behind The Twilight Zone with a foreward by Neil Gaiman. It was a gift from my sister and it's not only a good...
A man wrote, “If you are a man, you are part of rape culture.” A man wrote it!
Last night I watched one of Robin Williams' last movies: The Angriest Man in Brooklyn. I don't know when he finished the movie, but it was released in May 2014 and came out on video-on-demand (VOD) in July 2014, weeks before Williams' suicide. I can only find bad...