Tom Purcell Columns category, Page 5
Tom Purcell: Let’s unleash the entrepreneur
I started my first business in the fifth grade when I convinced a neighbor to allow me to cut her grass with her electric lawn mower. That project ended in immediate failure. The mower was powered by a long extension cord — a cord I ran over and sliced in...
Tom Purcell: More focused than ever at 60
“Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.” Those are the clever words of British humorist Terry Pratchett, who couldn’t have explained the aging process more succinctly. I know his words are true because I am turning 60 today. It’s a heck of a thing to have...
Tom Purcell: Taxes always on my mind
“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain but death and taxes.” That quote is often attributed to Ben Franklin or Mark Twain, but whoever said it, no truer words have ever been spoken. I filed my annual income tax extension April 18, the last day of this...
Tom Purcell: Learning to appreciate the regular flu
I recommend the seasonal flu — but please allow me to explain. About a week ago, I felt suddenly rundown and weak. I just wanted to lie down. I thought nothing of it at the time. My family is facing some difficulties at the moment, difficulties we all must face...
Tom Purcell: We must fix the nursing shortage
Where did all the nurses go? One of my family members ended up in the ER for a week after a bad fall. The hospital we chose and its staff were wonderful in every way, but this time, one important thing was missing: an appropriate number of nurses to deliver...
Tom Purcell: What is a woman?
I’m glad there’s widespread confusion about what a woman is. I’ve been confused my entire life. In the most basic sense, the difference between a male and a female is that a female has two X chromosomes and a male has an X and a Y chromosome — or, in...
Tom Purcell: How commoners can cope with inflation
Finally, people have found something to agree about. Last week, economics professor Teresa Ghilarducci penned an op-ed for Bloomberg News in which she offers tips on how people who earn less than $289,000 a year can cope with inflation. Her piece got quite a negative Twitter reaction from people across...
Tom Purcell: A world in need of Irish wit and wisdom
With the world full of angst and disruption — with so many people filled with anger and hate — I can’t think of a better time to embrace the Irish spirit. So let me share some of Ireland’s most enjoyable blessings, proverbs and quotes, as gathered by IrishCentral. This blessing...
Tom Purcell: Old family photos bring new perspective
My mother and father keep our old photos in their hall closet in a sturdy old Pabst Blue Ribbon box. Sifting through old photos is a glorious experience — one, we now know, that relieves aches and pains by calming the brain, according to a recent study. The last time...
Tom Purcell: Ukraine’s hero in chief
Their bravery inspires. As I sit safely in the cozy office in my home writing this column, the people of Ukraine are greeting Putin’s massive military invasion with incredible defiance and courage. Their president, Volodymyr Zelensky, reportedly rejected an offer from the U.S. government to evacuate Kyiv — despite reports...
Tom Purcell: Four-day workweek? I wish.
Three-day weekends sound good to me. According to Business Insider, a movement is afoot for companies to offer employees four-day work weeks — 10 hours a day over four days, rather than eight hours over five days — so they may enjoy three-day weekends. More employers say that a four-day...
Tom Purcell: Social insecurity
A quarter of a million dollars. That’s the amount that I’ve paid in FICA payroll taxes during my working career, according to my recent Social Security statement. FICA, which stands for “Federal Insurance Contributions Act,” “is a payroll tax that helps fund both Social Security and Medicare programs, which provide...
Tom Purcell: The scandalous silence about China
It’s possibly the only scandal we are allowed to discuss. In 2015, the peaceful and tiny world of competitive curling was rocked by a broom kerfuffle that sent the ancient sport reeling. Curling — which is currently getting its quadrennial global TV exposure at the Winter Olympics in Beijing —...
Tom Purcell: Thin Mints should be our next government ban
The federal government should ban them. Girl Scout cookie season is upon us, my friends — the most agonizing of all the seasons. Dieters with ever-worsening health like me who need to lose weight are always at the mercy of those devilish treats — as Thin Mints clearly are as...
Tom Purcell: Beating inflation is laughable
In these inflationary times, it’s not easy to laugh as you watch the value of your hard-earned savings being destroyed. But I chuckled out loud when I read some of the tips offered by Bloomberg News to beat inflation, which is at its highest point in more than 40 years....
Tom Purcell: It’s time to cancel ‘snow days’
“Snow day.” Those were once the two most glorious words ever uttered on an early-morning radio broadcast. When I was a kid in the ’70s, it was pure heaven to wake to snow-blanketed hills, then tune in to Jack Bogut’s KDKA morning show, praying he’d say our suburban school district...
Tom Purcell: Reshaping America’s battle of the bulge
An anti-diet movement is afoot? Where can I sign up! According to the Wall Street Journal, more people are taking a more reasonable approach to dieting that lets them be healthy while staying at their non-skinny weight. The WSJ article features people who tried a variety of different diets over...
Tom Purcell: We’ve got our eyes on you, 2022!
Hello, 2022. We hope you’re not expecting to get the honeymoon treatment that most New Years have gotten throughout history. You see, 2022, most of us are very cranky here in the USA and we have our eyes on you. It’s nothing personal, 2022. It’s just that our hopes for...
Tom Purcell: Hail to our everyday local heroes
A recent Reddit thread discusses the lack of heroes in modern society, but the truth is we have plenty of heroes. It’s true that in the internet era, historic figures we once considered heroic are being reevaluated as their past misdeeds and personal peccadilloes are revealed. Celebrities we once admired...
Tom Purcell: The basics of student loan debt
’Tis the season for giving — or, for some legislators, a good time to demand that the government force taxpayers to give others a large gift. A few weeks ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the house floor to issue another plea for the federal government to cancel nearly $1.7...
Tom Purcell: The merry return of Christmas cards
Christmas card trends are telling — they speak to the mood of the country — and this year’s trend offers some positive news. According to The Washington Post, hand-written “snail-mailed” Christmas cards are all the rage, particularly among millennials who all of a sudden are spending more on Christmas cards...
Tom Purcell: The best Christmas gift? Time.
Our time is the best gift we can give to our friends and family this Christmas. Nobody knows how much time we have on Earth — nobody knows when our time will end. We all have friends and loved ones who were claimed way too early. Hopefully, you are blessed,...
Tom Purcell: Just say no to well-meaning but unaffordable spending
I wish I had a change of heart, but I still can’t support it. Back in 2009, long before I got my beloved 11-month-old puppy, Thurber, I was critical of a proposed federal bill that sought tax deductions for pet owners. Robert Davi, a tough-guy Hollywood actor, and then Rep....
Tom Purcell: A tradition to be thankful for
I love pumpkin pie — but not just any pumpkin pie. It has to be my mother’s pumpkin pie, made with her unique thick and dry crust, and it has to be enjoyed only on Thanksgiving Day. It’s a Purcell family tradition, after all, and tradition is the reason Thanksgiving...
Tom Purcell: Give thanks for our blessings, big and small
Because life is mostly made up of little experiences, occasionally interrupted by big events, it’s easy to take the little things for granted. But Shutterfly, the photography and image-sharing company, offers a list of 100 things, large and small, that we ought to single out for our gratitude this Thanksgiving....
