I hate having a weird Japanese legal name. My legal name is Seisuke D. Kohno. I've always gone by David, my middle name. My grandma re-married to a Japanese man who adopted my dad, so I ended up with that last name and my damn parents decided to name me after him (his first name) because I was born on the same day as him. As a result, I'm the most generic, all-american looking white boy on the face of the planet with the most Japanese name ever. I got teased a lot in school when I was younger and it used to be really embarassing in situations like a traffic court room or urgent care waiting room, hearing people publicly butcher the hell out of my name (it's pronounced 'say-skay' but looks like suzuki on paper.) However, eventually the name sort of grew on me for the simple fact that I became used to it and I started enjoying watching people embarrass themselves trying to pronounce it in front of a large group of people. It's also a really good conversation piece whenever I'm in a situation where I have to give my legal name or hand over my ID. I've had to explain the story a million times. I don't mind it anymore.

 

Unfortunately, having a really weird name can have dire consequences. When you have a name like mine that no one has ever seen before -- it is very likely, especially if it's being entered in computer systems, for official forms, from handwriting on documents; it gets misspelled all the time. I just set up direct deposit with my new job and there was already a delay in getting my direct deposit set up (i.e. a delay in getting PAID)) because of the Patriot Act and the fact that my driver's license says I live in Columbus Ohio but I live in Shaker Heights and need to give my Shaker mailing address to receive my debit card to activate it. I hardly ever get physical, post-marked mail that can prove where I live when trying to update my license or open a bank account or anything like that. Anyway, I finally got things straightened out so that I could accept direct deposit (the only form of payment my company and it's payroll company are willing to use - it must save them a dollar or two per pay period) only to find out long after I was supposed to get my first check, after calling the bank, that I never received money because my direct deposit was "rejected" by my bank because a payment was made to my account for a Mr. "Kehno." The dumbasses in payroll spelled my name wrong and the bank told me it takes six days just for them to transfer the payment back to payroll.  So all together it seems i'm looking at 10 business days or basically two weeks longer than anticipated, to get my first check when I really need the money.  :x  It's not my fault people aren't careful entering in information. Why can't they just write me a damn check? Just give me my money. I asked my bank if  I'm going to be charged a fee for a "rejected payment." I mean, this is payroll sending a payment to my bank that is getting rejected and has to be sent back to payroll, only for payroll to re-send the same payment again, but to someone whose name has one different vowel near the beginning of his name. Something tells me they're going to try to charge me for this. She just masterfully beated around the bush and didn't answer my question in a way in which I didn't feel inclined to question it at the time.

you would fit right in in the East Village

Despite Japan being the second biggest economic power in the world, most Asians don't care about Japan and don't know that much about their culture, including common names. What's funny is that my name comes from a country that absolutely despises "Gaijins" (foreigners). Japan is seriously as Xenophobic as it gets; it's not progressive like most people would think. They are very isolationist, protectionist, etc. 

 

One night CDM, ink and I were over at Walker's house. We fire up the PS2 game Katamari Damacacy and the little guy in the game starts picking up various 'hood staples that were placed in the level such as 40s and BBQ stuff and rolling them into a huge ball. CDM's like, "This is racist!" All I could say is "Japan's pretty bad about that kind of stuff."

 

CDM thinks everyone is racist.

Despite Japan being the second biggest economic power in the world, most Asians don't care about Japan and don't know that much about their culture, including common names. What's funny is that my name comes from a country that absolutely despises "Gaijins" (foreigners). Japan is seriously as Xenophobic as it gets; it's not progressive like most people would think. They are very isolationist, protectionist, etc. 

 

One night CDM, ink and I were over at Walker's house. We fire up the PS2 game Katamari Damacacy and the little guy in the game starts picking up various 'hood staples that were placed in the level such as 40s and BBQ stuff and rolling them into a huge ball. CDM's like, "This is racist!" All I could say is "Japan's pretty bad about that kind of stuff."

 

CDM thinks everyone is racist.

 

CDM is correct.

I hate having a weird Japanese legal name. My legal name is  D. Kohno.

 

 

i don't know if this is going to add to your name issues, but do you know the english spelling of your surname does not exactly fit japanese either? i know why they did it though, because [ koono ], which is the literal spelling of your name in english from the hiragana, would not be spoken correctly in english. however, its interesting because if it was spelled [ kono ] it would be spoken just fine over here, but they could not help themselves in trying to emphasize the japanese-ness of it even though it would never be noticed by english speakers. as you may probably know in japan they would pronouce your name [ kohhno-san ] in person, stretching the [ o ] out, but here in english speaking land we will just say [ kono ] no matter how you try to spell it [ ie., kono, cono, cohno, kohno, doesn't matter does it? -- matters a lot in nihongo though ]. the kanji for it may also have influenced the english spelling.

 

good news is...seisuke is perfectly common and is also a literally correct english translation from japanese. unfortunately, when you use it you probably get a lot of sigh-sue-key or sigh-sue-kay here in the states that you can have a laugh about, when of course as you said the typical pronounciation is sayskay. technically, there could be a slight pause in the middle, for the [ i ], like say-eh-skay. you might hear a very polite lady pronounce it that way, but most japanese would certainly just say sayskay.

 

sorry i couldnt resist, anything nihon-related gets my 3yrs of japanese student going, i cant help myself. i love that stuff.

 

 

 

Nintendo stock is going to kill it with the new system. Holy f, what a revolutionary device!!!!

 

I hate having a weird Japanese legal name. My legal name is  D. Kohno.

 

 

i don't know if this is going to add to your name issues, but do you know the english spelling of your surname does not exactly fit japanese either? i know why they did it though, because [ koono ], which is the literal spelling of your name in english from the hiragana, would not be spoken correctly in english. however, its interesting because if it was spelled [ kono ] it would be spoken just fine over here, but they could not help themselves in trying to emphasize the japanese-ness of it even though it would never be noticed by english speakers. as you may probably know in japan they would pronouce your name [ kohhno-san ] in person, stretching the [ o ] out, but here in english speaking land we will just say [ kono ] no matter how you try to spell it [ ie., kono, cono, cohno, kohno, doesn't matter does it? -- matters a lot in nihongo though ]. the kanji for it may also have influenced the english spelling.

 

good news is...seisuke is perfectly common and is also a literally correct english translation from japanese. unfortunately, when you use it you probably get a lot of sigh-sue-key or sigh-sue-kay here in the states that you can have a laugh about, when of course as you said the typical pronounciation is sayskay. technically, there could be a slight pause in the middle, for the [ i ], like say-eh-skay. you might hear a very polite lady pronounce it that way, but most japanese would certainly just say sayskay.

 

sorry i couldnt resist, anything nihon-related gets my 3yrs of japanese student going, i cant help myself. i love that stuff.

 

I think that Kohno was common way for Japanese to write in English what in Japanese would be be written ko-u-no (こうの), rather than ko-o-no (こおの). In Japan, it would be written (in English) Kōno.

Like everyone else at once point, I had a childhood dream of being an actor. To this day, I think it would be so cool; I just never could have followed through with it because it's such unstable work and dealing with a lot of rejection. One of my room mates is an actress. She's done opera in Italy, Broadway plays and has even been in big motion pictures like Anwone Fisher and Jack Reacher. Credits for musical scores--the whole nine. She gets all this cool mail, like royalty checks, from when her movies air or get bought / rented. Especially during Black History month for Antwone Fisher. Since she's in the Screen Actor's Guild and therefore, one of the people who get to vote for the Oscars, we're constantly getting mail for pre-screenings of movies before they even come out in theaters. I told her, you know.. I've gotten seize and desist letters from Paramount and Fox for downloading movies and episodes of Family Guy illegally and they just sent you blue-Ray quality disks of all this stuff like it's nothing, before I would even get a chance to find it online and download it illegally. What a crazy world we live in.

I hate having a weird Japanese legal name. My legal name is  D. Kohno.

 

 

i don't know if this is going to add to your name issues, but do you know the english spelling of your surname does not exactly fit japanese either? i know why they did it though, because [ koono ], which is the literal spelling of your name in english from the hiragana, would not be spoken correctly in english. however, its interesting because if it was spelled [ kono ] it would be spoken just fine over here, but they could not help themselves in trying to emphasize the japanese-ness of it even though it would never be noticed by english speakers. as you may probably know in japan they would pronouce your name [ kohhno-san ] in person, stretching the [ o ] out, but here in english speaking land we will just say [ kono ] no matter how you try to spell it [ ie., kono, cono, cohno, kohno, doesn't matter does it? -- matters a lot in nihongo though ]. the kanji for it may also have influenced the english spelling.

 

good news is...seisuke is perfectly common and is also a literally correct english translation from japanese. unfortunately, when you use it you probably get a lot of sigh-sue-key or sigh-sue-kay here in the states that you can have a laugh about, when of course as you said the typical pronounciation is sayskay. technically, there could be a slight pause in the middle, for the [ i ], like say-eh-skay. you might hear a very polite lady pronounce it that way, but most japanese would certainly just say sayskay.

 

sorry i couldnt resist, anything nihon-related gets my 3yrs of japanese student going, i cant help myself. i love that stuff.

 

I think that Kohno was common way for Japanese to write in English what in Japanese would be be written ko-u-no (こうの), rather than ko-o-no (こおの). In Japan, it would be written (in English) Kōno.

 

certainly and in japan in roomaji (english or more accurately japanglish) it could also be written ko-no if it was koono.

 

the problems are that kohno is not a common surname and even much more so that the kanji background of any surname makes the hiragana or spelling of it very tricky even in japan. the kana and english spelling versions really come down to the personal preferences and history of the family.

 

i found something about it -- this explains it a bit:

http://surnames.behindthename.com/glossary/view/japanese_names

-- i just find the nihongo aka the japanese language endlessly fascinating!

Omg...I'm just picturing you having my name and getting asked every day about it's origin. They would be so sorry they asked lol! The question wouldn't annoy you nearly as much as it annoys me!

Can't some politician step up and stop all the annoying sales call that I get on my cell phone?  Isn't using fake phone numbers against some law?  I think the Consumer's Union has spearheaded an effort in this direction, but for some reason has no political support.  There must be some big money behind allowing this to continue.

 

The calls reduce productivity and are a menace. 

 

Also, please get rid of the penny. 

They really should get rid of the penny. It's obnoxious. Literally the only use of the penny is to allow prices to end in 99 cents. I don't think any of us will miss that trick. They could still make prices end in 95 cents as a lot of places do, to annoy and mislead us. They cost more to make than they're even worth. With all of the inflation we've had over the years, the penny just becomes increasingly irrelevant.

Pennies are litter.

Can't some politician step up and stop all the annoying sales call that I get on my cell phone?  Isn't using fake phone numbers against some law? 

I consistently get calls, texts for a Joseph petito, who is not me. I've had this phone number since 2007 and it drives me insane that at least 5 times a week I get calls or texts telling Joseph that he can refinance his student loans.

 

I feel a man in the iron mask scenario developing where I find his real phone number and address and sign him up for ev-ery-thing conceivably possible.

Some advertising agencies need screening people with irreverent minds.  Whoops.....

 

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/we-all-need-d-says-ad-campaign-obviously-doesnt-know-what-d-means-169187

Is it normal for Siamese Cats to just eat anything? My room mate's cat came up to me while I was eating pita and sriracha carrot hummus earlier; I gave him a piece and he actually ate it. Tonight I went to Wing Stop and just got back and he ate the skins of my louisiana dry-rub wings.

Just now, on the phone --

 

Caller: May have zoning information for xxxx Zeman Avenue?

Me: Yes, that is a U1-Single Family House District

 

Caller: Ok,... single.... family... house ... district.... U1

 

Caller: Is the "E" as in "ukulele?

Me: No... it is "U" as in "ukulele" or "umbrella". Both of which begin with the letter "U"

 

Caller: Oh

 

 

Whenever I'm on the phone and someone asks me to read an ID number or spell something out, I have so much trouble thinking of "V as in Victor" type words on the spot.

^ I once stuttered and came dangerously close to using a rather inappropriate word as an example for "P" - ever since I have kept this page bookmarked, and have a little printout of it at my desk:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet

Ha! I've been guilty of being stumped as well and saying 'V' as in......a word that starts with 'V'......

I struggle coming up with words for letters on the spot too. I made a jackss[/member] out of myself once on the phone when I said "Z as in...uhh... Zylophone. Then I realized that it actually starts with an X. I really wish I would have thought of Zebra before I said that.

When I was learning to fly, I would literally go throughout my day reading license plates, typing spreadsheets, whatever...by spelling them out with the FAA phonetic alphabet.  It comes in handy everywhere today--especially on customer-service calls!  :-P

 

https://www.faa.gov/education/educators/activities/elementary/media/Aircraft-Identification.pdf

I struggle coming up with words for letters on the spot too. I made a jackss[/member] out of myself once on the phone when I said "Z as in...uhh... Zylophone. Then I realized that it actually starts with an X. I really wish I would have thought of Zebra before I said that.

 

The voice phone is thankfully being phased out as a way to share detailed information, this is a big part of why.

Thinking about Valentine's Day. What's the most romantic restaurant to take your girlfriend to, up here in CLE? I have been to a lot of nice restaurants in Cleveland with her but off hand, I don't know which restaurants exist that I'm looking for. I'd really love to take her to one of those revolving restaurants with a city view but I don't think one exists up here. I'm sure there's restaurants with a city view though, where we could sit by the window. I should have looked into this sooner and made a reservation. This is going to be tough. Anyone have ideas? A vegetarian-friendly place with ambience and city / lake views? Help a brother out. I need to reserve a table somewhere, asap!

The food court in Tower City has a nice view of the river.

 

Joking aside, I've found that Pier W has great views of the city (it's in Lakewood, but on a bluff overlooking the water) and the food is good (or it was the last time I was there, which admittedly was about 2 years ago....I HAVE THREE KIDS AND THERE WILL BE NO ROMANTIC DINNERS!!)

 

I can't speak to if their veg-friendly or not, though.

LOL. I do love Sakkio Japan!! She hates Asian food though. She's so unbelievably picky when it comes to food.  Well the plans fell through anyway because I didn't realize (and just found out after getting off the phone with her) that she has class from 6-9pm on Valentines day so I guess it doesn't matter. I appreciate your suggestion though. Maybe I can take her there another day to make up for it.

speaking of cle views, i wonder if its possible for somebody to reopen top of the town in the erieview bldg? whats that space look like today? can it be converted back easily? anybody know?

speaking of cle views, i wonder if its possible for somebody to reopen top of the town in the erieview bldg? whats that space look like today? can it be converted back easily? anybody know?

 

I'd be more interested in *this* reopening.

 

^ so you are the type that would rather go to the esb than top of the rock - lol.

well, this is something.

 

saturn v fuel consumption expressed as elephants.

 

^ha. that made think of an article that mentioned a fart can be the size of a soda can. Food for thought. I'm sure there's a gif of that floating around too.

^ha. that made think of an article that mentioned a fart can be the size of a soda can. Food for thought. I'm sure there's a gif of that floating around too.

 

That clearly depends on a few factors. After eating taco bell, mine can take up a 5 bedroom house.

The blood is a nice touch

so sad, Alan Colmes dies. He was that rare liberal with a sense of humor (and brother-in-law of Monica Crowley)

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/23/remembering-alan-colmes-liberal-who-could-laugh.html

Surely you jest.

 

If you ask me, people who are die-hard, adamant members of their 'team' (or party) tend to be uptight stiffs with no sense of humor. People who choose not to have much of a political affiliation (like me,) are generally hilarious.  :-P

Surely you jest.

 

If you ask me, people who are die-hard, adamant members of their 'team' (or party) tend to be uptight stiffs with no sense of humor. People who choose not to have much of a political affiliation (like me,) are generally hilarious.  :-P

 

People who are cynical about their own but dismissive of the other can be too.  P. J. O'Rourke is a great example.

I've been buying Powerball tickets lately, dreaming of buying a penthouse on the west bank of the flats with a great view of Downtown Cleveland. I guess I was just buying Powerball specifically, for no reason but I noticed the Mega Millions jackpot is actually much higher so I bought one of those instead. THEN I found out that tickets are actually only $1 as opposed to $2 for Powerball. I was wondering about the ROI and odds of winning for MM Vs. PB and found out that Mega Millions actually has significantly better odds for the jackpot compared to PB, despite only being $1. The only problem is that since MM tickets are cheaper, perhaps more tickets are bought and you're more likely to have to share the jackpot. I couldn't find any information regarding those trends for multiple winners. Still, considering MM jackpot is significantly higher than powerball right now, it seems like I made a good decision there. Hopefully I'll be going penthouse shopping tomorrow. If I win, I'm inviting you all to a cookout on my rooftop balcony. :)

^Your Hilltop is trying to come out but then you let all that math get in the way.

LOL.

 

I used to think the lottery was just a tax on the stupid but hey, we all need a dream. What's a dollar or two? Plus, if the profit goes to a good cause, that helps justify it. What would you guys do if you won the lottery? I'm talking, say, $50M cash value after tax (I bet hardly anyone opts for the annuity, heh.)

 

As far as personal assets, I'd get a Tesla and of course my Penthouse and all the furniture I'd need, inside. Other than that, I think I'd mostly just spend money on vacations; traveling.

 

Business ventures: I would help re-develop the east side of Cleveland, especially near The Clinic, with infill projects. I'd also try to spend a lot of time helping to create jobs nearby, to help less fortunate people in the community. I'd probably even build a couple community centers that keep kids productive and out of trouble.

 

I just heard the saddest sh!t the other day, from this article I read. Cleveland Public Schools has the HIGHEST suicide rate of ANY school district in America. 20% of these kids have attempted suicide. I went to some really rough Cincinnati and Columbus Public Schools that I'm sure weren't much better and I can imagine how rough a lot of these kids have it. For a lot of them, the only meal they eat is at school where it's free because their crack addicted single-mom sold all the food stamps for cash. Their lives are insanely unstable for reasons completely out of their control. Also, there seems to be a huge stigma in the black community when it comes to things like mental illness and even homosexuality. Even if I had the resources, I'd probably end up going broke doing whatever I could to help improve these kids lives. God, that story really got to me (and sort of hit home.)

 

They say when you win the lottery, everyone comes out of the woodwork with their sob stories. I bet we'd all have 300 cousins we were never aware of, if we won.

 

They say when you win the lottery, everyone comes out of the woodwork with their sob stories. I bet we'd all have 300 cousins we were never aware of, if we won.

 

That is why if you win, get a blind trust.

My grandmother won a share of an $8 million super lotto jackpot in the mid-90s.  I'm not sure of the actual dollar amount but we believe that she won about $150,000.  What happened to it?  She took the entire family (about 30~ people) on a cruise and gave the rest to the church.  She was in love with the pastor.  About two years later he was picked up in a gay prostitution sting in a Dayton park.  Beyond that, he was long-rumored to have embezzled money and many of us suspect that she wrote a personal check for $100,000~ to him, not to the church. 

 

So when people wonder why I get upset about some personal finance issues on this forum and in real life, it's because I watched a family member luck into a large amount of money and get swindled out of it.  She could have bought a 4-family building cash and let her grandkids live in it until they got married.  Instead it went to drugs and prostitutes. 

 

 

if you're going to play the lottery, why not just play the state lotto? Your odds are so much better of winning. And at a certain point, who cares if you win 200 million or 30 million? You're still set for life.

 

They say when you win the lottery, everyone comes out of the woodwork with their sob stories. I bet we'd all have 300 cousins we were never aware of, if we won.

 

That is why if you win, get a blind trust.

 

Blind trust seems pointless for my purposes. I'd rather just tell everyone my money is tied up (which essentially it would be, in principle, in one way or another.) I'll just maintain complete control and hire my girlfriend's dad to help me manage it. He was the tax accounting director at E&Y and probably the smartest and most ethical person I've ever met.

 

See, the problem is, I'd want to be heavily involved in the projects where my money is being invested. I don't want to just look at statements showing my returns each quarter. That's...well, not the fun of winning the lottery and being able to take a new career path of my choice. I really want to transform neighborhoods on the east side of Cleveland and in transforming entire blocks at a time, my properties would inevitably increase in value. Especially since I'd also be concerned with many facets of neighborhood residents' quality of life; something developers overlook. If they lacked a laundromat or retail, green space or hell, whatever businesses or institutional amenities, I'd honestly help bring that to the community because my ultimate goal would be to create stable, sustainable communities. I'd hunt down grants and all that fun stuff.  I'd need a pretty sizable team, I know. It would require me hiring a lot of contractors and I'd have to rely on consultants to help me but most importantly, I think I'd need a good accountant / financial adviser in the beginning; someone I can give financial POA to, helps me incorporate and get the ball rolling. Someone who gives me honest advice and isn't afraid to stop me dead in my tracks from making bad decisions. I feel as though anyone who wins the lottery and isn't used to having so much money - absolutely before anything else - needs to enlist a financial adviser who is trustworthy, has some degree of legal authority over finances (including overriding spending decisions that were already made) and isn't afraid to give a swift kick in the rear when it's needed. I'll just tell my relatives my money is tied up or my accountant won't approve of writing them a check. I honestly don't think I'd even feel bad about lying to them but that's just a testament to how horrible my family is.

 

if you're going to play the lottery, why not just play the state lotto? Your odds are so much better of winning. And at a certain point, who cares if you win 200 million or 30 million? You're still set for life.

 

Sure, $30M is way more than anyone needs to be set for life but there's definitely a lot more you could do with $200M than with $30M. You could definitely make much larger plans with $200M. If you plan on just kicking back and relaxing for the rest of your life, sure, it doesn't really matter how many millions you won but I think I'd be really unhappy and feel like my life was meaningless if I just had a portfolio manager handling everything while I'm sitting on the couch. Sadly, that's probably what most people do when they win and they focus on how they can spend the money instead of how to put that money to work.

Well the amount you need to actually not have to work, ever, is pretty high.  Realistically you'd need to win $10 million, of which you might escape with $6 million after taxes. 

 

With that you'd put 1/3 in stocks, 1/3 in bonds, and 1/3 in rental properties.  You'd never touch the stocks (dividends reinvested) then earn about $150-200k annually off of the bonds and rental properties.  So you'd have about $100-150k per year after taxes or about $10,000 per month.

 

It's amazing how quickly a $100,000 after taxes income is devoured if you have multiple kids in private schools and go on two $8,000 vacations per year.  So like I said $10 million isn't really that much. 

jmecklenborg[/member]

 

^My cousin's husband sold his software startup company to AutoDesk for like $10M some years back. They also made him a product manager. They have a $1.2M house in Indian Hill and have 4 kids, all of whom attend Seven Hills. I can't imagine over the years how much they've spent on schooling alone, and will continue to do so. That's such a Cincinnati thing, too. Indian Hill already has a top notch school district; why anyone would pay tens of thousands a year per child when they already pay probably $25k a year in property taxes for their stellar school district is totally beyond me. I feel like this is where me growing up poor would actually benefit the rich version of myself because I realize how impractical some of these expenses are, when they seem to be a 'no-brainer' decision to people who have always been upper-middle class or wealthy.

 

In general, I've always felt that those private schools are more about social status of the parents and to a lesser extent, their kids, than anything else.

I'm sick of retailers, especially large scale ones, blaming Amazon and e-commerce for their bad quarters and store closings. Going to a Walmart or JC Penny's can be an unpleasant experience; it sure seems to get worse every year. Fix your image, hire employees who give a S**t, remember that good customer service is key for survival, maybe get some security, and innovate, modernise, innovate. Paying with Ipads is not innovation. Installing a nice coffee shop and having periodic events is. Wine tasting and yoga classes and singles mixers are what people want, and these department stores have a ton of real estate for those draws.

 

Don't just blame online shopping, which I'm convinced is not nearly as damaging as they allege. With online commerce returning items is a pain; proper fittings are a complete shot in the dark; and there aren't any real savings. Kohl's and Sears are often comparable with Amazon.

Yeah I went to catholic schools before they were expensive so it wasn't a significant financial strain for anyone.  Saving that money to pay for college and/or a down payment on a house is probably a much wiser move. 

I'm sick of retailers, especially large scale ones, blaming Amazon and e-commerce for their bad quarters and store closings. Going to a Walmart or JC Penny's can be an unpleasant experience; it sure seems to get worse every year. Fix your image, hire employees who give a S**t, remember that good customer service is key for survival, maybe get some security, and innovate, modernise, innovate. Paying with Ipads is not innovation. Installing a nice coffee shop and having periodic events is. Wine tasting and yoga classes and singles mixers are what people want, and these department stores have a ton of real estate for those draws.

 

Don't just blame online shopping, which I'm convinced is not nearly as damaging as they allege. With online commerce returning items is a pain; proper fittings are a complete shot in the dark; and there aren't any real savings. Kohl's and Sears are often comparable with Amazon.

 

It's not so much the retailers blaming online shopping but rather lazy Millennial reporters who have never ordered anything out of a catalog or the back of a magazine. They also don't have the perspective of people who bought a lot of stuff at a young age such as Boomers and Xers who bought a ton of stereo equipment, car parts, tools, records/tapes/CDs, dirt bikes, etc. before the age of 25. So they don't even notice how their couch, laptop, TV, game system, phone, bicycle and bed as their only wordly possessions makes them totally different from a 25-year-old from 1988.

Yeah I went to catholic schools before they were expensive so it wasn't a significant financial strain for anyone.  Saving that money to pay for college and/or a down payment on a house is probably a much wiser move. 

 

When I went to private school in 1984-'88 it was $150-$300 a month rather than that much a day.

I used to think the lottery was just a tax on the stupid but hey, we all need a dream. What's a dollar or two?

 

What is stupid is the people who buy 50 or 100 tickets when the jackpot hits a certain point....thinking they have a better chance.  Statistically their chances are about the same as buying a single ticket.