Back in the day, we lived in small clans or tribes of loosely related people, usually ruled over by whoever had the strongest leadership skills, or the strongest arm. Everybody else grew, gathered or hunted food. About the only specialization in existence was perhaps the healer/spiritual leader. Other than the chief, most people were roughly equal in status.

If the American people want something enough, our democratic government delivers it. The trouble is that when we want contradictions, pandering, and self-destruction we get that too.

Weekly financial Q&A, with advice on when to buy a house and being in debt to family members.

I have often written about my mishaps and unfortunate interactions with suburban flora and fauna. In addition to my encounters with poison ivy and other nasty weeds, I have come up against grouchy uber-woodchucks, manic squirrels and psycho wild turkeys, to name a few. Although I have taken it all in stride, my husband thinks I have an unusually high rate of unpleasant nature issues for one stay-at-home mom suburbanite. I am quick to point out that since he works in the city, he doesn't really have as much of an opportunity as I do for run-ins with wildlife ... at least the four-legged kind.

This may shock you: Al Gore did not invent the Internet. But this may shock you more: The Internet actually dates back to the mid-1860s.

Like most people, I spend much of my time trying to determine whom I should blame for all my various problems. It can be tough, since there are so many options to choose from, such as the government, Wall Street and/or Mel Gibson. All are tempting, but I’ve decided to pick Google.

I feel a little bit sorry for my son. With me, everything can become a lesson. I believe in teachable moments. You can learn a lot by being told how things work. But in my opinion, there is no substitute for actually seeing those words applied.

I’m having recovered memory with the return to TV of “Mad Men” on AMC. I feel a tingle of recognition just looking at the dress, the cars, the interiors seen on that series.

A key characteristic of a vigorous mind is an unquenchable curiosity. I’m thankful that my grandparents never quelled my need to explore and seek out answers for many, many things.

As I’ve done each year in celebration of my birthday, I took a few minutes to reflect on some of the events that helped me reach another year older. Overall, I’ve been lucky, aside from a few incidents that hindered otherwise perfect health.

After a two-year investigation, reporters for the Washington Post estimate that some 265,000 private contractors are doing top-secret work for the U.S. government. Presumably that includes the young man I met this summer at a barbecue.

Let’s face it, except for someone trying to sneak into a bar with fake ID, nobody minds being mistaken for a younger version of himself.

There have been a lot of jellyfish in the news lately, and by that I mean it's possible that there have been a lot of jellyfish stories in the news lately. I have no idea, really, but I've personally encountered the same jellyfish story twice in 48 hours, and since taking one's own personal experience, writing about it at breathless, context-free length and behaving as though you've uncovered a massing panic of national consequence is how the media works now, I figured I might as well board the Journalism 2.0 train. So what I meant to say there was INVADING MONSTER JELLYFISH WILL DEVOUR US WHOLE, AND ALSO I THINK THAT THEY ARE RACIST.

The hot summer months offer loads of opportunity to save on groceries and eat healthy at the same time. With backyard gardens in full bloom, lots of fruits and veggies in season and on sale and less of a need for heavy comfort-style meals, keeping it light has never been easier. Check out these favorite original recipes from the folks at the food blog Cheap Healthy Good.

I want to discuss with you today the troubling issue of rampant vocabularization. You think I made up that word. This is part of the problem. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell what words are real and what words somebody just scribbled into their dictionary and then started using.