The 6 Best Housesitting Jobs (from Adventure to Side Hustle)

These opportunities can either give you a free place to stay on your next vacation or put some extra money in your pocket. There are tons of different ways to connect with these opportunities, and we scoured through them all to find the best ones for you.

What does house sitting mean?

House sitting is when you watch someone’s house while they are out of town. Sometimes, house sitting services include spending the night, and sometimes it just involves stopping in at defined intervals and making sure everything is okay.

People generally hire house sitters to get the mail, turn a few lights on, water plants, and take care of pets while they are away.

People generally hire house sitters to get the mail, turn a few lights on, water plants, and take care of pets while they are away. These things also help deter would-be burglars who want to target empty homes. The house sitter helps make the house look occupied.

Do house sitters get paid?

Most house sitters get paid in one way or another unless you’re doing it as a favor to a friend or family member. I house-sat for my aunt once a long time ago—she had this country house and needed someone to take care of the dogs and cats while she was away. Let me tell you, as a city girl, staying the night all alone in a country farmhouse was the most terrifying experience of my life! And I’ve been to Iraq!

Yes, most house sitters get paid.

But I digress. Yes, most house sitters get paid. Some house sitting gigs use lodging as a form of currency rather than cash, but in my opinion, that counts as payment. That’s especially true if you are interested in house sitting as a way to travel hack your way to free accommodation!

Are house sitting jobs safe?

There is nothing inherently dangerous about house sitting. Obviously, everything has risks. I wouldn’t take a house sitting job off of Craigslist, for instance. That sounds a bit sketchy.

Find out if anyone else has access to the home via a spare key or entry code.

But house sitting jobs on most other websites are completely legitimate and aren’t any riskier than anything else we do in life. You should always use an abundance of caution and take protective measures. Set up interviews with your potential clients before staying the night. Find out if anyone else has access to the home via a spare key or entry code. Use an app that vets clients. Let friends and family know where you are staying. Make sure that the neighborhood is one that you feel comfortable in. These are important steps you can take to ensure your safety when you house sit.

What are the best places to find house sitting jobs?

And really,...

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10 COVID-19 Stimulus Benefits for the Self-Employed

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, life and business certainly have changed. If you’re self-employed full-time or earn business income on the side of a day job, you may be wondering what economic relief applies to you.  

Let's review what relief Congress passed to help self-employed Americans cope with financial challenges. I’ll review ten key stimulus benefits that apply to solopreneurs and small businesses.

If you're experiencing economic hardship due to the coronavirus, using some of these new regulations may be the ticket to managing your personal and business finances better.

10 ways the self-employed can get financial relief

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act became law on March 27 as the largest stimulus legislation in American history since the New Deal in the 1930s. Here are ten ways it provides relief for individual solopreneurs and small business owners.

1. Getting lower interest rates

On March 3, the central U.S. bank, also known as the Federal Reserve or Fed, made a surprising emergency interest rate cut of half a percentage point. That’s the largest single rate cut since the financial crisis of 2008. While this move wasn’t part of a coronavirus stimulus package, it was an aggressive cut meant to prepare the economy for problems the pandemic was expected to cause.

An economic recovery could take a few years, which likely means the Fed rate will stay near zero through 2023.

In mid-September, the Fed reiterated its promise to keep interest rates near zero until the economy improves and the unemployment rate declines. They indicated that a recovery could take a few years, which likely means the Fed rate stays near zero through 2023.

While savers never celebrate low interest rates, they're beneficial to borrowers. In general, the financing charge on variable-rate credit cards and lines of credit goes down in lockstep with interest rates. Carrying a balance on your personal and business credit cards may be slightly less expensive, depending on your card issuer and type. For instance, if your card’s annual percentage rate or APR is 20%, your adjusted rate could go down to 19.5%.

If you have a fixed-rate credit card, the APR doesn’t change no matter what happens in the economy or with federal interest rates. Also, note that if you pay off your balance in full each month, a credit card’s APR is irrelevant because you don’t pay interest on purchases.

2. ...

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7 Tips for Cooking Poultry like a Pro

1. Cleaning raw chicken

Poultry must be thoroughly cleaned inside and out before cooking, in order to remove any residue that may be left from the slaughtering process. If you detect a slight “off” odor when you open the package, rinse the bird under cool water, then submerge in a solution of water plus one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar and one teaspoon of salt per cup of water. Then refrigerate one to four hours before cooking.

2. Beautifully browned bird

Try basting your bird with a small amount of white zinfandel or vermouth—it will help crisp the skin, and the alcohol imparts a brown color and glaze to the outside of the meat. Or, brush the skin with reduced-sodium soy sauce during the last 30 minutes of cooking to produce a beautiful burnished color.

See also: Clever Cookst's 1 Chicken, 5 Meals

3. An apple a day keeps dry turkey away

If your roasted chicken or turkey tends to be too dry, try stuffing a whole apple inside the bird before roasting. Just toss the apple afterward. 

You can also line the bottom of the pan with lemon and onion slices. They’ll give the bird a lovely flavor and make sure it stays moist.

4. Crispy chicken secret

We’ve got the secret to crispy chicken skin: salt! The next time you buy a whole chicken, sprinkle it with about a tablespoon of coarse salt and place it uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. The salt and the dry air in the refrigerator will draw out moisture—the enemy of crispiness—and you’ll roast up a super-tasty bird.

5. Another secret to crispy chicken

Make your fried chicken super-crispy by adding three to four teaspoons cornstarch to each cup of flour. Or add one teaspoon baking soda to the batter. Then sit back and wait for your fried chicken to win praise!

Related: Domestic CEO's How to Thaw a Turkey

6. Tender poultry trick

For the most tender poultry you’ve ever cooked, submerge the chicken or turkey in buttermilk and refrigerate for two to three hours before cooking.

7. Let poultry rest

Once poultry has finished cooking, it should be allowed to rest for about 20...

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Can You Get Enough Fiber on a Low-FODMAP Diet?

The low-FODMAP diet can be very effective in reducing painful symptoms associated with irritable bowel syndrome (a disorder that affects up to 15% of adults). But the approach also eliminates a lot of healthy foods, including many vegetables and whole grains. How do we reconcile the low-FODMAP approach other dietary advice?

First, a little background for those who may not be familiar with FODMAPs.

What are FODMAPs?

The idea behind the low-FODMAP diet is that most IBS symptoms, such as bloating and abdominal pain, are triggered by certain types of carbohydrates that are poorly digested or absorbed. By avoiding foods that contain these specific carbohydrate molecules, the symptoms of IBS can be greatly reduced.

Since its introduction in 2005, numerous studies and clinical trials have shown the low-FODMAP diet to be extremely and uniquely effective—much to the relief of millions of IBS sufferers everywhere. 

The term FODMAP is actually an acronym for the types of carbohydrate molecules that are targeted in this approach: Fructans, Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols.

Do people suffering from IBS have to choose between symptom relief and the benefits of a higher fiber diet?

Foods that are high in one or more of these special molecules include wheat, rye, onions, legumes, lentils, dairy products, mushrooms, and cauliflower. The low-FODMAP diet also limits certain fruits, such as apples and pears, and sweeteners, such as honey, which are higher in fructose.

And here’s where it gets a little tricky. We talk a lot about the value of fiber in a healthy diet. Incorporating more fiber into your diet can help regulate blood sugar and cholesterol, manage your appetite and weight, and promote a healthy microbiome. But, many foods that are high in fiber are also high in FODMAPs.

Do people suffering from IBS have to choose between symptom relief and the benefits of a higher fiber diet? 

How to Balance FODMAPs and Fiber

Joining me to sort through this is Tamara Duker Frueman, registered dietitian and digestive specialist and author of The Bloated Belly Whisperer.

Monica Reinagel:

Tamara, in addition to your extensive knowledge of all things gut related, you also have very extensive clinical experience working with patients. And I want to share with you a couple of specific questions that I've gotten from my listeners.

Julie writes:

I have IBS and I generally follow a low-FODMAP diet, but all I ever hear is how bad white bread and white rice are. These are now diet staples for me. If I eat whole grains, it makes me feel bloated and...

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Rock Solid Stability: Why You Need It and How to Get It

I use terms like stability, mobility, flexibility, and balance all the time in my podcast episodes and articles, but I rarely have the time to do a deep examination of each. So today, with the help of my special guest expert, I am going to rectify that. 

You don’t need to be a sports scientist or even an elite athlete for this to be meaningful stuff!

To help me in the endeavor, I have asked Yoga15’s Abi Carver back on the podcast (check out Abi’s other Get-Fit Guy episode about how you can use yoga to improve your athletic performance). Abi is the founder of and an instructor at Yoga 15, a two-time 200-Hour Yoga Alliance Certified Yoga Teacher, and a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer. So she knows a thing or two about how the body works. Which makes her the perfect person to explain stability and how it relates to the human body. 

What is stability?

"So, stability as it relates to the human body, from an anatomical perspective, is the ability to hold a position, but it's also the ability to control your movement through different movements and different positions," Abi said.

This seems simple and straight forward enough, but I think it gets a little muddled up with some of the other terms like mobility, and balance. So I asked Abi to set us straight on that.

"Stability and mobility typically refer to joints," she explained. "So, for each of our joints, we have a spectrum of available mobility and a spectrum of available stability. Stability, you can think of it as the strength of a joint. And mobility is the range of motion at that joint. So let's take the ankle, for instance, there's quite a lot of mobility at the ankle, you can circle your ankle, you can flex and extend your ankle. So there's not so much stability there as there is mobility, but if you take something like the lower back or the pelvis, there's much less range of motion or mobility there and much more stability. So each of the joints has an optimum range, both for mobility and for stability."

Stability is the strength of a joint. And mobility is the range of motion at that joint.

And then how does balance fit in?

"Well, balance to me is slightly separate because balance is essentially a much more complicated," Abi said. "It's not just to do with joints because it also relates to proprioception, which is your body's sense of where your body is in space. So, for instance, if you were going to challenge your balance by standing on one leg, not only...

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What Are the Absolute Coldest and Hottest Temperatures Possible?

What is absolute zero?

The laws of physics say there is an absolute rock bottom coldest temperature possible. We even define a temperature scale, Kelvins, where this lower limit is defined as 0 Kelvin, otherwise known as absolute zero. At a temperature of absolute zero, the motions of particles are at a minimum since almost all of their energy is removed. (But they are not completely devoid of energy as there is always some energy associated with their resting ground state.) And in case you don’t work in Kelvins every day, 0 Kelvin (or 0 K) is about -273 degrees Celsius and roughly -460 degrees Fahrenheit. 

At a temperature of absolute zero, the motions of particles are at a minimum since almost all of their energy is removed.

Absolute zero is a theoretical temperature. In other words, our mathematical calculations tell us it must exist when we dial the heat energy all the way down. But how cold can we actually get? 

At a temperature of 1 K, the Boomerang Nebula is rumored to be the coldest place in the universe, at least from what we’ve found so far. It’s a young planetary nebula, gaseous debris hurled out into space by the last gasps of a dying star. Initial observations of the gas made the nebula appear lopsided like a boomerang—hence the name. But more detailed imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope shows it actually looks more like a bowtie. Planetary nebulae are known to come in a wide variety of shapes—an unusual characteristic astronomers are still trying to understand—but even among these funky-shaped clouds of debris, the Boomerang Nebula stands out. 

The unique shape of the Boomerang appears linked to the reason for its uniquely low temperature as well. The Boomerang is losing 10-100 times more material each year than is standard for such planetary nebula due to very strong (over 300,000 mile-per-hour) winds forcing ultracold gas away from the star. This fast-moving gas forms the bowtie shape as it quickly expands and thus cools.  

How cold does it get on Earth?

Remember the tardigrade? Those extreme little water bears are known to be able to survive temperatures as cold as ~-270 degrees Celsius or just above absolute zero. Lucky for the rest of us, the ...

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Burned Out and Overwhelmed? Try the GAIN Technique

Burnout is more than just a feeling of being overwhelmed. Untamed, it can present a real medical risk. Today, my guest is Dr. Greg Hammer, an intensive care physician, Stanford University professor, and author of the book GAIN Without Pain: The Happiness Handbook for Medical Professionals. He shared his simple, medically-backed framework for conquering burnout and finding your happier, healthier place.

I'll summarize our discussion here. But, as always, I encourage you to listen to the full interview by clicking on the audio player above or listening on your favorite podcast platform to gain every nuance.

What is burnout? Why are so many of us feeling it?

Dr. Hammer began by defining burnout as "a state of emotional and physical exhaustion, which is related to stress."

"People who are burnt out are often cynical," Dr. Hammer said. "They tend to depersonalize. They often have low self-esteem. They are impatient. They may ... blow up and be temperamental. Yes, it is a huge problem now as ever. But I think, since burnout is a stress-related phenomenon, and the stress related to this COVID pandemic is so ... global and so persistent. ... People have been under stress, which has now gone from acute stress to chronic stress, which has significant deleterious physiologic effects."

Dr. Hammer explained that stress is often associated with poor sleep which, in turn, leaves us drained of the energy we need to make good choices. So, our diet and exercise begin to suffer, creating a “vicious cycle” that leaves us unhealthy and exhausted.

If you can’t change your circumstances, you can GAIN your way to health

I asked Dr. Hammer how he advises patients who may know they are burned out but don’t feel empowered to make a change right now. Maybe they’re afraid to leave their job amidst a pandemic, or caring for ailing family members, or worried about paying the bills. What can you do when you feel unable to move away from the situation causing your burnout?

Dr. Hammer developed a four-part framework in response to that very challenge. The framework, GAIN, is an acronym for its four core principles which are:

G - Gratitude

A - Acceptance

I - Intention

N - Nonjudgment

Gratitude

Experiencing gratitude amidst a crisis can be difficult. But it’s all about staying present and maintaining a sense of perspective.

Although the coronavirus pandemic is scary, Dr. Hammer explained that we're in a better place now than our ancestors were over 100 years ago. We may be navigating a scary...

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7 Home Remedies for Ulcers: Natural Herbs and Treatments

Stomach pain, bloating, heartburn ... the discomfort of ulcer symptoms is no joke! If you'd like to try some simple home remedies for ulcers, here are seven to help soothe the fires within.

If you're experiencing severe ulcer symptoms such as vomiting, dark bloody or tarry stool, faintness, trouble breating, appetite changes, or unexplained weight loss, it's important to seek help from a medical professional.

Onions

Stock up on onions! They might give you gas, but they also prevent the growth of ulcer-causing bacteria that can increase your risk of gastritis (stomach inflammation) and, over time, lead to stomach cancer. Add sliced onion to salads and sandwiches, or toss them into stir-fries, fajitas, and pastas—just avoid frying, which can upset your stomach.

RELATED: What Are Stomach Ulcers?

Yogurt

Everyone’s wild for yogurt these days, and for good reason: Most yogurts contain active cultures, lactobacillus and bifidobacterium, that can help digestion by balancing out bad bacteria with good bacteria. If you’re on antibiotics, these yogurts can be especially helpful: They replenish the good bacteria that your meds have eliminated from your body, preventing diarrhea.

Castor oil compress

Calm a painful ulcer with a castor oil “pack” applied to your abdomen. Castor oil can reduce inflammation, relieve pain, and heal tissues beneath the skin, and a compress is easy and inexpensive to make. Place a towel in castor oil until completely saturated. Squeeze to remove any extra liquid and avoid dripping. Cover the painful area on your abdomen, then top with a dry towel and a hot-water bottle for added pressure. Leave the pack on for up to one hour.

Cabbage

Although it’s not the flashiest vegetable, cabbage offers some amazing ulcer-healing abilities: It helps protect the lining of the stomach and intestines and wards off the bacteria that cause ulcers. Try to eat two cups of raw cabbage every day (coleslaw, anyone?), or consider making a super-potent juice: Four cups of cabbage juice per day has been shown to heal peptic ulcers in less...

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A User's Guide to Democracy Miniseries

Do your eyes glaze over and your ears tune out the moment people start talking about government and politics? Maybe you shrink into a corner because you're sure everyone in the room is more informed and you're afraid your knowledge gaps will be exposed. Or maybe you're up to speed on how the U.S. government works, but you'd love to soak up some intriguing facts and quirky trivia. We've got you covered!

Over four quick and dirty podcast episodes, Nick Capodice and Hannah McCartney, the authors of A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works, will drop some knowledge about elections and the Electoral College, how to petition and protest for change, the branches of U.S. government and how they're kept from becoming all-powerful through a system of checks and balances, and some landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases that shaped America.

Episode One: A User's Guide to U.S. Elections

Who's responsible for the Electoral College? (Hint: There's a wildly popular Broadway musical about him.) We'll dish on that and everything you need to know about the U.S. election process in the inaugural episode of our Unknown History miniseries, A User's Guide to Democracy.

Episode Two: A User's Guide to Getting Involved in Democracy—Petitions and Protests

How do you get involved in U.S. Democracy? Here's a crash course on next-level civic participation. Yep, we're talking about putting your money or your giant poster board sign where your mask-covered mouth is.

Episode Three: A User's Guide to the Branches of U.S. Government

The three branches of the U.S. federal government—executive, legislative, and judicial—keep each other in line through a system of "checks and...

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How to Deal with a Moody Teenager: 5 Kind Tips for Parents

The teen in your life may leave you continuously scratching your head. She's capable of shifting from super-happy to out-of-control crankiness faster than a NASCAR driver changes lanes. The most frustrating part for parents is that these mood swings seem to come out of nowhere.

I know—I've already raised six teens, and I have two more to go. When people find out I have teens in my midst, they shake their heads, roll their eyes, and take pity on me. "Good luck surviving the teen years!"

Teenagers are fascinating young adults—intelligent, funny, adventurous, and curious. Unfortunately, they often get a bad rap. Society tends to focus on their unpredictable, moody natures instead of all the cool things they bring to the table. That negativity can seep into your life and make you dread interacting with your teen. But if you embrace this time in your child's life rather than dread it, the teen years don't have to be a living nightmare.

5 ways to cope with a moody teenager

Here are five loving strategies to help you cope with the moodiest of teenagers.

It's essential for parents to pay attention to their teen's mood and make sure that there are no signs of depression. Visit the National Institute of Mental Health website for information on teen depression, including signs and symptoms to watch for.

Educate your teen (and yourself) about their emotional development

The start of puberty means young adults have to endure significant hormonal changes. Their bodies are physically developing, but their brains are not mature until their mid- to late-twenties. So, as they're trying to adjust to sudden physical changes, they're also coping with rapid emotional changes. No wonder they have intense bouts of moodiness!

Your adolescent needs to know that mood swings and unpredictable behavior are brough on by normal and natural changes happening to their bodies and minds.

I read an insightful interview with Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, an award-winning professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, about how teenagers get a bad rap.

Until about 15 or 20 years ago, we just didn't know that the brain develops at all within the teenage years. Until then, it was assumed that teenage behavior was almost entirely down to hormonal changes in puberty. But brain scans and psychological experiments have...

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A User's Guide to U.S. Supreme Court Cases that Shaped History

After you listen to this episode of A User's Guide to Democracy on Unknown History, quiz yourself on your knowledge of landmark Supreme Court cases for a chance to win a copy of the book! (Enter by Sunday, October 4, 2020.)

Today, we're all about opinions—not yours, not mine, but the U.S. Supreme Court's. We've got a whole chapter in our book of landmark Supreme Court decisions and the ramifications. But we're just going to give you the nuts and bolts of a scant few today.

Marbury v. Madison established judicial review

The Supreme Court case that defined what the supreme court can do was Marbury v. Madison, decided in 1803. If you take one thing away today, it's that this decision established what's called "judicial review," which means that it's the Supreme Court's job to interpret the constitution and decide what is and what is not constitutional.

Alright, let's set the scene.

1800. John Adams, second president, lover of hard cider, loses the 1800 election to Thomas Jefferson. And Adams is in what we call the lame-duck presidency, that time between when a new president is elected and when they actually take office. And it's a big chunk of time.

John Adams doesn't just sit there with his head in his hands. He and his federalist Congress go crazy trying to pack all the courts in the United States with federalist judges.

Jefferson doesn't move into the presidency until March 4, 1801. So, John Adams doesn't just sit there with his head in his hands, wondering what went wrong; he gets to work. He and his federalist Congress go crazy trying to pack all the courts in the United States with federalist judges.

They passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, based on the Judiciary Act of 1789, which gave them the power to do this. By the time Jefferson is sworn in, they'd appointed 16 Circuit Court judges and 42 justices of the peace. These were called the "midnight judges." These judges were sent commissions, which are letters confirming their new post, and not all of them got delivered in time. One justice to be, William Marbury, waited and waited for his commission to arrive and it never did.

And oh, how Marbury wanted that little commission. And he never got it.

So Marbury petitioned to the Supreme Court. He asked for the court to order a writ of mandamus to force Jefferson's Secretary of State, James Madison, to deliver it to him.

So did he get? Well, he should have. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that, yes, it was illegal for Madison to not deliver Marbury his...

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How to Reduce Money Anxiety—Compassionate Advice from a Finance Pro

Even in the best of times, managing personal finances can be daunting. When and how much should I save for retirement? How do I get out of debt? Does my budget make sense? What the heck is a 403(b)? But things can feel even more dire during life or career transitions, after unexpected expenses, or especially when there's a global financial downturn.

If you experience money anxiety, you're certainly not alone, especially right now.

Sometimes, money questions can feel so overwhelming that we avoid thinking about it, letting the bills pile up, or not checking our credit score. Sometimes the opposite happens—we can't stop worrying, and we feel stuck in making financial decisions for ourselves and our families. If you experience money anxiety, you're certainly not alone, especially right now when there's so much uncertainty and change in the economy. 

How can we dial down the anxiety meter so we can keep our heads and make wise money decisions? I talked to a money expert to find some answers.

And not just any money expert. I talked to Laura Adams, one of the nation’s leading personal finance and small business authorities. As an award-winning author, media spokesperson, and host of the top-rated Money Girl podcast since 2008, millions of readers, listeners, and loyal fans benefit from her practical advice. She’s written multiple books, and the latest title is Money-Smart Solopreneur: A Personal Finance System for Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, and Side-Hustlers. I love her work not only because she's got great practical advice, but also because she brings empathy and compassion to all her listeners and readers. Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation:

Jade Wu

Welcome to the show, Laura. We're so excited to have you with us.

Laura Adams

Thank you, Jade. It's really fun to be with you.

What are the most common money anxieties?

JW

What are the most common money anxieties that you hear about from people? And are there any ones lately that are particularly salient?

LA

I think a big [source of] anxiety is just not getting started early enough. I think a lot of people reach middle age, maybe even they approach retirement, and just feel like they haven't done a good enough job of saving. That's pretty common. Even people who've saved a lot will also feel anxious. So if you are starting earlier, I think that can give you a sense of peace and security that at least you have a plan in place.

And certainly, right now, people are anxious about burning through their savings, if they've lost their job, if...

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What Does 'Smarmy' Mean?

"Smarmy" is a useful word, as anyone who has had to listen to an oleaginous colleague drone on in a business meeting can attest. Unlike most useful words, its origin can be traced to a particular person — who invented it as a joke.

The Oxford English Dictionary‘s principal definition for "smarmy" is "ingratiating, obsequious; smug, unctuous," and the first citation is from L. Brock, "Deductions of Col. Gore," published in 1924:

Don't you be taken in by that smarmy swine. 

The word is widely used today, with more than 42,000 hits on Google News. A recent "New York Times" theater review says a Munich production of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" turned "it into a Midsummer Nightmare, with a smarmy, sadistic Puck who gets his kicks by knocking Athenian lovers unconscious with his spells."

Looking to antedate the OED, as I do, I found a 1905 use of the word in the Google Books database: a poem called "The Widower" by Edward Sydney Tylee, published in "The Living Age." Tylee is going for an English West Country accent (sometimes referred to as Mummerset):

Moments after I proudly tweeted out my find, Jonathon Green, editor of "Green’s Dictionary of Slang," responded with a bit of skepticism: "Looking at other bits of [the] poem allowed by Google Books I’m certain it is a positive sense and not the current one. All simple rustic good fellowship, none of implications of modern 'smarmy.'"

On reflection, I took his point, although I couldn’t find such a good-fellowship meaning in any reference work or in any other text. The other recognized meaning of “smarmy“ derives from the verb "smarm" (sometimes spelled "smalm" or "smawm"), defined by the OED as "smear, bedaub" and first cited by the dictionary in an 1847 work, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words. The OED has a secondary definition of "smarmy" as...

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Rest on Your Laurels

Highly-accomplished people are often praised for their deeds. When you use the phrase “to rest on your laurels” to describe a person’s character, though, it implies that the person is slacking off, relying on their good reputation or achievements as an excuse to not put in the effort at their current task. What about “resting on laurels” implies this type of laziness?

Let’s start by defining what a laurel is. Laurel is a type of tree ("laurus nobilis”), whose leaves are also known as sweet bay: Yes, the same as those bay leaves you use for cooking! 

Besides their culinary or ornamental uses, the idea of a crown of laurels stems from the Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo, ruler of the sun and god of music. When Apollo wanted to woo the nymph Daphne, she turned into a laurel tree instead of returning his affections. Though he was rejected, Apollo decided to don a crown of laurel leaves in her honor. In ancient Greek tradition, these crowns were gifted to athletic champions and seen as symbols of status and victory.

This connotation of glory lives on in the word “laureate,” first coined in the late 14th century, meaning "crowned with laurels.” The phrase “laureat poete” then pops up in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” as part of “The Knight’s Tale.” The modern translation of this reads:

With laurel crowned as conqueror
There he lived in joy and honour. 

The phrase switched to “poet laureate” when penned by Ben Jonson in the 16th century. 

In 1668, England established the position of Poet Laureate, and esteemed poet, literary critic, and playwright John Dryden was the first to hold this honor. Poet laureates still exist in the United Kingdom, and the honorees are bestowed a stipend and “a butt of sack,” aka. a barrel of sherry! The United States also has a Poet Laureate position, and that person is appointed annually by the Librarian of the United States Congress. Outside of poetry, Nobel Prize winners are also known as laureates.

So a crown of laurels and being a laureate are marks of distinction, not associated with slacking off or riding on your reputation. The expression “to rest on one’s laurels'” evolved in the 18th century as part of an earned victory or a well-deserved retirement speech: that the honored person had accomplished so much, they finally earned a rest! 

Later in the 19th century, this expression crossed over from laudatory to critical. In 1825, the review magazine “The Literary Chronicle” praises the work of Maria Edgeworth and ends in a gentle jest:

We do not...

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Strange Smells in the Kitchen

Have you ever walked into your home only to have the immediate thought of, “Oh my goodness, what is that smell?” When your house smells, it can be hard to focus on anything other than the nagging thought of, “Where is that smell coming from?” until the problem is resolved. 

Well, it’s likely coming from somewhere in your kitchen. Today's tips are going to discuss the most common kitchen smells and how to get rid of them. Keep this episode bookmarked, so next time you are greeted by an offending smell in the house, you can go straight to the list of most common offenders instead of walking around the house like a bloodhound dog trying to sniff out where the smell is coming from.

During your search for the source, mask the smell in the meantime with these 6 Easy Air Fresheners You Can Make at Home Right Now. 

Kitchen smell culprit #1: Garbage can

The first, most obvious place to check when your home smells is the garbage can. In my personal experience, I would say that about 75% of all kitchen smells come from nasty garbage cans. If your garbage smells, this is usually a relatively easy fix. First, take the garbage out (as in all the way out of the house, not just outside the door). Taking the extra 50 steps to put the smelly garbage in the outdoor receptacle will prevent the garbage smell from infecting any other area of your house. Once the trash itself is removed, you may still have a smelly garbage can. This usually happens when the trash bag leaks and food or liquid collect in the bottom of the trash can. Treat garbage can smells by rinsing out the can using the sprayer on your kitchen sink, or by taking the can into your shower, then spraying the inside of the garbage can with vinegar or surface cleaner. Let the cleaner sit for a few seconds, then wipe the garbage can dry. Let it air dry for about 20 minutes to let all the moisture dry before putting a new trash bag in the can, and you should be good to go.

Related: Domestic CEO's Go Green: 5 Tips to Cut Down on Trash in the Kitchen

Kitchen smell culprit #2: Garbage disposal

If you put food down your garbage disposal, at some point you are going to have garbage disposal smells. The good news is that this is very easy to find and fix. You can identify garbage disposal smells by sticking your nose near the sink...

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Video: 3 Bridge Variations

To truly thrive in this life, you need to pay attention to the full, unrestricted movement of your human meat sack. One of the best ways to do that is to regain, and then maintain, hip strength and mobility. Check out my full hip-strengthening article for more info about that. 

The main target muscle in the Hip Bridge is the erector spinae, which runs from your neck to your tailbone. Doing this exercise stretches and engages your hip abductors, gluteus maximus, and hamstrings. On the other end of the movement, the rectus abdominis, obliques, and quadriceps get a workout due to the need to stay stable.

If you are feeling adventurous, you also try adding the Marching Bridge and the Single Leg variation. But don't get carried away—master the basic bridge before progressing.

If you have a workout program already solidly in place, try adding the bridge. Or you can simply pair it with other movements (from me or anywhere else) to create your own awesome workout. Bridges can also be a good warm-up exercise before a run, bike ride, or swim. 

A healthy balance of hip strength and mobility is very important to ensure everyday stability and also to prevent overuse and athletic injuries. Achieving this balance isn't a problem if you keep it in mind and don't sit too much for too long. Occasionally, you can even weird out your coworkers by lying down on the conference room floor and doing some hip bridges!

If you're experiencing significant pain in your lower back, please check with your doctor or physical therapist to make sure it's safe for you to practice these poses.

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Enemy vs. Nemesis

Enemy. Nemesis. If you’re like me, you have probably used these words interchangeably, at least once, if not often. I’ll admit that for a long time, these two words would have registered as synonyms to me. In my mind, a nemesis was just an enemy’s meaner, tougher older brother. Different ways to say the same thing: the person out to get you. A grand malevolent force in your life or story. In the case of literature; the antagonist.

We’re taught, as students—and as writers—not to reuse a word over and over. To avoid the monotony of repetition. So of course, there are a million ways to say the same thing, and it certainly wouldn’t come as a surprise if we were to find these words actually are synonyms. But the truth is, there are subtle differences between enemy and nemesis, and despite their common uses, the two words are far from equal.

By definition, an enemy is this: one that is antagonistic to another; something harmful or deadly. So yes, the person out to get you is certainly an enemy. And by definition, an antagonist. A nemesis, on the other hand, is defined as this: a formidable and usually victorious rival or opponent. Nemesis was the Greek goddess of retribution, and it was believed that she wouldn’t just enact swift punishment, she would sometimes wait years or even generations, to punish a crime. Usually victorious. While an enemy seeks to antagonize you, and perhaps harm you; a nemesis is like that gopher in the carnival game that just keeps coming back. The story antagonist that is killed in book one, only to be revealed as alive in book two, makes a comeback in book three, and is still out to destroy the hero in book four.

So the next time you ask yourself if someone is an enemy or a nemesis, perhaps you need only look to their stamina. Are they in it for the long haul? Will their desire for revenge push them along for years, or maybe an entire lifetime? Or will they find that their lack of persistence and motivation is truly their nemesis, rendering them nothing more than an average enemy?

Sources:
Dictionary.com
Merriam-webster.com
Greekmythology.com

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Should You Transfer Balances to No-Interest Credit Cards Multiple Times?

Karen, our editor at Quick and Dirty Tips, has a friend named Heather who listens to the Money Girl podcast and has a money question. She thought it would be a great podcast topic and sent it to me. 

Heather says:

I had a financial crisis and ended up with a $2,500 balance on my new credit card, which had a no-interest promotion for 18 months when I got it. That promotional rate is going to expire in a couple of months. I have good credit, and I keep getting offers from other card companies for zero-interest balance transfer promotions. Would it be a good idea to apply for another card and transfer my balance so I don't have to pay any interest? Are there any downsides that I should watch out for?

Thanks, Karen and Heather! That's a terrific question. I'm sure many podcast listeners and readers also wonder if it's a good idea to transfer a balance multiple times. 

This article will explain balance transfer credit cards, how they make paying off high-interest debt easier, and tips to handle them the right way. You'll learn some pros and cons of doing multiple balance transfers and mistakes to avoid.

What is a balance transfer credit card or offer?

A balance transfer credit card is also known as a no-interest or zero-interest credit card. It's a card feature that includes an offer for you to transfer balances from other accounts and save money for a limited period.

You typically pay an annual percentage rate (APR) of 0% during a promotional period ranging from 6 to 18 months. In general, you'll need good credit to qualify for the best transfer deals.

Every transfer offer is different because it depends on the issuer and your financial situation; however, the longer the promotional period, the better. You don't accrue one penny of interest until the promotion expires.

However, you typically must pay a one-time transfer fee in the range of 2% to 5%. For example, if you transfer $1,000 to a card with a 2% transfer fee, you'll be charged $20, which increases your debt to $1,020. So, choose a transfer card with the lowest transfer fee and no annual fee, when possible.

When you get approved for a new balance transfer...

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Does Growing Almonds Really Waste Too Much Water?

A friend recently related a conversation she’d had with her barista at a well-known coffee chain. The barista confided that she bristles when her customers order almond milk for their lattes because “growing almonds wastes so much water.”

You may have heard similar things about almonds and their negative impact on the environment. For example, you might have heard that it takes a gallon of water to produce a single almond.

Perhaps you've been avoiding almonds and almond milk out of concern about water usage. But, as is so often the case, there’s a little more to this story.

Perhaps, like my friend’s barista, you have been avoiding almonds and almond milk out of concern about water usage. But, as is so often the case, there’s a little more to this story.

How much water does it take? 

It’s true that almonds are a very water-intensive crop. But all nuts are water-intensive crops. If we were all to switch to pistachio milk or walnut milk, prompting farmers to start growing more of those nuts instead of almonds, we’d still be using about the same amount of water. 

The non-dairy alternatives that have the lowest water footprint are soy and oat.

According to data published in the June 2018 issue of the journal Science, the non-dairy alternatives that have the lowest water footprint are soy and oat. But nut milks still require significantly less water to produce than cow’s milk. And in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, almond milk may actually be one of the better choices, because almond trees trap more CO2 in their leaves than other crops.

But getting back to water issues: The reason that almonds use such a large share of California’s water supply is that they make up such a large share of California’s agricultural economy.

Why California is the world's biggest almond producer

The growing conditions in California are ideal for almonds. Almonds are also a very high-value crop—farmers can earn far more per acre growing almonds than any other crop. Worldwide demand for almonds has also skyrocketed in the last two decades, in part due to sustained campaigns by industry groups to promote the health benefits of almonds. 

In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, almond milk may actually be one of the better choices, because almond trees trap more CO2 in their leaves than other crops.

...

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9 Tips to Make Cleaning Easier This Fall

Fall clothing stains

If you pulled your fall clothes out of the back of your closet only to find old stains on them, just use our old standby: hydrogen peroxide and dishwashing liquid. Your sweaters will look like new in no time! 

Clean faster

Reuse an old kitchen apron to help speed up your housecleaning. Fill the pockets of the apron with your cleaning supplies, and you’ll be able to walk from room to room with everything you need right in the pockets in front of you. Make sure to bring a plastic bag with you for garbage you find around the house!

Related: Domestic CEO'S 9 Genius Cleaning Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

How to clean your windows

Paper towels are for amateurs! Use newspaper, coffee filters, or even pages from a telephone book to clean your windows and they won’t leave as many streaks. Bonus: No pieces of lint behind!

Another sanity-saving window cleaning tip

Do you feel like you can never get a window completely clean? Here’s an easy tip that will help you to tell which side of the pane those godforsaken streaks are on. Simply wash your windows from top to bottom on the inside, then switch to washing side to side on the outside.

Cleaning blinds

Use kitchen tongs or bread crusts to clean your blinds! No, really, here’s our post on how to easily clean blinds to find out how.

See also: Who Knew's 10 Tips That Will Change How You Clean Your Kitchen

The easy way to clean fireplace ashes

Before cleaning the ashes from your fireplace, sprinkle some damp coffee grounds over them. They’ll weigh the ashes down and keep dust to a minimum.

Clean up sooty bricks with cola

Try an old masonry trick to brighten up soot-stained brick—use cola! Sponge the cola (flat is OK) onto sooty brick and leave for 15 minutes. Loosen the soot by scrubbing with a stiff-bristled brush. Sponge with clean water.

Just for fun: Who Knew's Top Tips for Fall

Orange peels for kindling

The best thing to use as...

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'Fall' Versus 'Autumn'

 

Fall officially starts Tuesday, September 22, this year in North America, but Starbucks doesn't care; the Pumpkin Spice Latte—a hallmark of fall—has been available for weeks. All the excitement online got me thinking about seasons and why this one seems to have two names: fall and autumn. 

And just to make it more confusing, the first day of fall is also called the autumnal equinox. On the first day of fall (and spring actually), day and night are the same length, and the word “equinox” comes from the same root as the word “equal,” showing that in this 24-hour period, day and night are equal. 

'Fall' is more common in the US. 'Autumn' is more common in Britain.

The Origin of ‘Fall’

Fall gets its name from the longer phrase “fall of the leaf” that was first used in the mid-1500s. (Spring comes from a similar phrase: “spring of the leaf.”) For whatever reason, the name “fall” became more popular in America more than it did in Britain, and in the US, “fall” is the standard season name.

The Origin of ‘Autumn’

British speakers are more likely to use the older name, “autumn,” which came into English from Old French in the late 1300s. The first reference in the Oxford English Dictionary is from Chaucer: 

Autumn comes again, heavy of apples.

Season names such as “fall" and “winter” are lowercase unless they are part of an official name such as the Winter Olympics.

I love that both “fall” and “spring” describe what’s happening to leaves in those times of year. Now that I know about “fall of the leaf” and “spring of the leaf,” when I’m out on a walk, I look at the trees and their changing leaves in a whole new way.

References

Wickman, F. "Why is autumn the only season with two names?" Slate. http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/09/29/why_does_autumn_have_two_names_how_the_third_season_became_both_autumn_and_fall_.html (accessed September 12, 2019).

"Days of the weeks, months, and seasons." Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, online. Section 8.87. ...

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Becoming a Psychologist—My First Day as a Therapist

The day I opened my private practice as a psychologist, I sat smugly in my office. Fortified with the knowledge I’d acquired, taking comfort in the rules I’d learned, I looked forward to having patients I could “cure.”

I was deluded.

I had no idea that psychotherapy wasn’t the psychologist solving problems but rather two people facing each other, week after week, endeavoring to reach some kind of psychological truth we could agree on.

Fortunately, I had no idea at the time what a messy business clinical psychology was or I may have opted for pure research, an area where I’d have control over my subjects and variables. Instead, I had to learn how to be flexible as new information trickled in weekly. I had no idea on that first day that psychotherapy wasn’t the psychologist solving problems but rather two people facing each other, week after week, endeavoring to reach some kind of psychological truth we could agree on.

No one brought this home to me more than Laura Wilkes, my first patient. She was referred to me through a general practitioner, who in his recorded message said, “She’ll fill you in on the details.” I don’t know who was more frightened, Laura or I. I was newly transformed from a student in jeans and a T-shirt to a professional, decked out in a silk blouse and a designer suit with linebacker shoulder pads, de rigueur in the early eighties. I sat behind my huge mahogany desk looking like a cross between Anna Freud and Joan Crawford. Luckily I had prematurely white hair in my twenties, which added some much-needed gravitas to my demeanor.

Laura was barely five feet high, with an hourglass figure, huge almond eyes, and such full lips that had it been thirty years later, I would have suspected Botox injections. She had masses of shoulder-length blond highlighted hair and her porcelain skin contrasted sharply with her dark eyes. Perfect makeup, with bright red lipstick, set off her features. She was chic in spike heels, a tailored silk blouse, and a black pencil skirt.

She said she was twenty-six, single, and working in a large securities firm. She’d started out as a secretary but had been promoted to the human resources department.

I continued to wait in what’s called a therapeutic silence—an uncomfortable quiet that’s supposed to elicit truth from the patient.

When I asked how I could help her, Laura sat for a long time looking out the window. I waited for her to tell me the problem. I continued to wait in what’s called a therapeutic silence—an uncomfortable quiet that’s supposed to elicit truth from the patient. Finally, she said, “I have herpes.”

I asked,...

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Hate Burpees? Here's How to Love Challenging Exercises

I talk about the phenomenon of doing too much too soon quite often in my articles, videos, and podcast episodes. But the problem with going from zero to pushing yourself as hard as your body will allow is that it's not enjoyable. It also leaves you feeling exhausted and depressed about your current physical fitness.

Of course, if you do persist, and you put yourself through these brutal workouts a few more times over weeks and months, you'll undoubtedly feel improvements in your fitness. But you'll also develop aches and pains (or maybe even an injury) and eventually need to take a break. Or, worse, you might deem the experiment a failure and go back to your previously scheduled sedentary lifestyle.

What if I told you there's a way to ease yourself into an exercise like burpees?

But what if I told you there's another way? There's a way to ease yourself into challenging exercises (like burpees) and fitness routines. Would you be willing to give it a try?

Good! I thought you might.

Slow down your burpees

The first thing I usually have to convince a new fitness client to do is slow the heck down.

We often refer to the too-fast pace as being “comfortably uncomfortable.” It's a pace that gives us the feeling of getting a good workout because it causes suffering. Yet it's also something we can actually do because the suffering isn’t unbearable. But there are a few problems with this pace.

• It deceives you into believing you're getting greater benefits than you would if you slowed down
• Intensity isn't the best way to maximize your fitness time
• It isn’t fun (at least not at first) unless you're a masochist
• It leads to injury and burnout

Let’s look at the difference between walking briskly (not a mosey) and running at a comfortably uncomfortable pace (not an all-out sprint).

• You can take a brisk walk without changing clothes
• You can stack brisk walking with other activities like running errands
• Brisk walking burns only slightly fewer calories per minute than moderate-intensity running does

Let’s apply the same idea to burpees.

If you watch someone doing burpees (or attend a boot camp workout that includes them), you might assume this exercise is all about speed. That's often because we're more focused on getting our workout done and over with than getting the most benefit out of it. Another factor is AMRAP.

You write that number on the chalkboard in the gym, post it on social media, and silently calculate whether you deserve a maple-mocha-frappe-latte or not.

AMRAP stands for “as many reps as possible” in a given...

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5 Steps to Kick Imposter Syndrome to the Curb

I still remember the first piece of work I delivered after starting my leadership consulting business. I had signed a contract to facilitate a half-day leadership program with an executive team of nine leaders.

I walked into the room that day—armed with a Masters Degree in Organizational Psychology, years of experience, and ringing endorsements from prior colleagues—thinking “What the [bleep] am I doing here? How did I possibly convince them that paying me to show up today was going to deliver even an ounce value? At what point in the day should I expect to be pelted with rotten tomatoes?”

Have you ever had your own version of that moment? The one in which everyone can see you’re perfectly qualified to be there, to ask for the thing, to win the deal, to be a success ... except you?

This, my friends, is the phenomenon known as imposter syndrome.

RELATED: 7 Simple Tips to Help You Stop Feeling Inadequate

One of my all-time favorite quotes is this wakeup call, often attributed to good ol' Henry Ford:

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

So let’s make sure you believe you can.

What is imposter syndrome?

Imposter syndrome is that icky feeling of dread you get when you’re about to do (or you're even just considering doing) the scary thing—apply for that job, ask for that raise, pitch your service to a new client, join a conversation with the big-wigs at that conference. It's the feeling that you don't deserve the success you've achieved, or that you're somehow fooling everybody into believing you're much more competent than you are.

The term was coined in 1978 by Dr.’s Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes, though the phenomenon certainly existed before that. Some studies show that women and people of color struggle more frequently. But anyone is susceptible to feeling like an imposter.

Wondering whether the thing you struggle with is imposter syndrome? Take this imposter syndrome test developed by Dr. Clance to help you decide.

How to overcome imposter syndrome

The good news is that imposter syndrome isn't terminal, and no pills are required to treat it. I've mostly overcome mine, and I'd love to share my tips to help...

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Is There Life on Venus? Here's What the New Discovery Means

Astronomers just can't keep a secret.

My favorite example of this was the 2016 landmark discovery of gravitational waves. A press conference was announced so that the whole world (outside of existing collaborators, of course) could learn together that physicists had discovered a new way of observing the universe. But 16 minutes before the conference, an astronomer tweeted a picture from a NASA celebration planned to coincide with the information’s release. It was a photo of a cake with a celebratory message scrawled out in sugary green icing: “Here’s to the first direct detection of gravitational waves!”

The secret was out. 

To be fair, this discovery was huge. The existence of gravitational waves had been predicted for over 100 years. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is so far the largest investment the National Science Foundation has ever made. So, you know, detecting gravitational waves was definitely worth a celebratory cake.

And astronomers had been abuzz about a possible revelation of gravitational waves for weeks. We noticed that one by one, all of our major telescopes had been directed to one spot on the sky … presumably to follow up on a source of great interest.

Is there life on Venus?

Astronomers found signatures of phosphine, a molecule that may be produced by some form of microbial life, in Venus's atmosphere.

So, it's no surprise that the night before the press embargo was lifted on the recent news from Venus, astronomers—and anyone who follows astronomers on Twitter—already knew what was coming: There were signs of life from our next-door neighbor.

Well, at least that’s what you would think if you read only the headlines. The reality is a bit more subtle. Astronomers found signatures of phosphine, a molecule that may be produced by some form of microbial life, in Venus's atmosphere. Or not. 

What is phosphine?

A phosphine molecule is the combination of one phosphorous atom and three hydrogen atoms. Here on Earth, we consider phosphine to be pretty toxic. It’s an explosive, corrosive, and hazardous gas...

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6 Valuable Parenting Tips for Successful Virtual Learning

Every year, settling into a new school year can bring families anxiety, disorganization, and a struggle to adjust to new routines after summer vacation. This year, however, families are facing an extraordinary challenge—learning to navigate many more months of virtual learning.

2020 sure has thrown parenting life into chaos! Not only did many of us have to adjust to working remotely, but we were also tasked with suddenly having to help our kids navigate virtual learning. Now, as the new school year begins, we're gearing up for another stretch of the new norm as our kids return to virtual classrooms.

There's no doubt this year school will be different. But with the right tools in place, it can still be an excellent experience for everyone. Here are five smart ways you can make your child's virtual learning a success.

1. Plan as though you're leaving the house

Some people joke that "plan" is a four-letter word. But when it's used to make your family's daily experience more manageable, I think the ability to plan is one of the most important skills we can have in our parenting toolbox, particularly when life is unusually challenging.

Keeping your family organized, productive, and on-task while they're engaged in virtual learning can be easier than you think if you plan your schedules as though you're still leaving your home each day to learn and work.

Whether your child is participating in a hybrid or fully virtual learning model, get ready for school the night before.

Start with your evening routine and move forward from there. Whether your child is participating in a hybrid or fully virtual learning model, get ready for school the night before. Follow familiar routines by having them shower and prepare for a healthy night's sleep. Selecting an outfit to wear, having breakfast items ready to go for morning and reviewing the next day's class itinerary will prepare your family to start the next day calmly and with at least some sense of normalcy in these unusual times.

Your child may be on a hybrid learning schedule, others a full distance learning model. Regardless, get everything ready the night before. Have them shower and prepare for a...

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A User's Guide to the Branches of U.S. Government

After you listen to this episode of A User's Guide to Democracy on Unknown History, quiz yourself on what you've learned about getting involved in government for a chance to win a copy of the book! (Enter by Sunday, October 4, 2020.)

Today, we're bringing you our very own Big Three—the three branches of the U.S. government: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

But before we tackle that, let's get one important thing out of the way. The system that keeps it all spinning—checks and balances. Because as Federalist Paper #51 puts it, "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition."

What is the separation of power in the U.S. government? Checks and balances!

The framers were very much aware that the grand ideas and philosophies they laid out in the Constitution would have to be implemented by fallible humans. And fallible humans have a tendency to get a little wild-eyed where power is concerned.

The first step in creating checks and balances was to skirt the whole king issue by splitting the governing power across three branches—something called the separation of power. But that wouldn't be enough. Those branches would need to keep a watchful eye over one another so that no one entity would get too big for its britches.

Who checks Congress?

So, let's start where the Constitution starts—Congress. The legislative branch makes laws that govern the people of the nation. Pretty straightforward, right? Of course, that's also an immense, almost staggering amount of power. You've got 535 mostly white, mostly male, mostly well-off people—that's 435 congresspeople and 100 senators—making the rules for hundreds of millions of Americans. What could possibly go wrong?

James Madison had our back on this one. So here's the catch, or in this case, the "check."

In order for a bill from Congress to actually become law, the President has to either sign it or, alternatively, do this thing where he doesn't do anything to it and the bill becomes a law on its own. But if the law says something like "Only Americans whose names end in the letter L are allowed to drive," the President could say "Hey, I don't like that. I'm vetoing it."

A veto override can be helpful if you've got a president who's totally at odds with Congress. There have only been 111 in U.S. history.

But then Congress has the power to veto that veto with a veto override, which requires a two-thirds majority vote in both houses.

That veto override can be helpful if you've got a president who's...

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How Being Less Defensive About Racism Will Help You Grow

Have you ever called a Black acquaintance you've met multiple times by the wrong name because you mixed them up with another Black person, even though they look nothing alike? Maybe you assumed your white friend's new boyfriend was also white ... until you met him and learned he was Latino. Ever laughed at or made a joke about a hurtful Asian stereotype? What about coming home from a party and suddenly realizing you introduced yourself only to strangers of your own race all evening even though the party was diverse?

I've done these things. And there have been many other times (including some I still haven't realized) when I participated in perpetuating racial prejudice, stereotyping, creating social distance between races, and discrimination.

I genuinely believe I am a good person who is not a racist. The idea of me contributing to racism sends my brain into DEFCON 3 defensive mode.

That sentence was incredibly hard to say out loud. It was especially hard to say without adding qualifiers like “perhaps,” “accidentally,” or “just like anyone else.” And this is because I genuinely believe I am a good person who is not a racist. The idea of me contributing to racism sends my brain into DEFCON 3 defensive mode.

If you can relate to this—or even if you don’t think you can but you do feel uncomfortable talking about racism—today’s discussion is for you. It’s aimed at people who consider themselves “not racist.” It will not be a finger-wagging exercise where I chastise you for being “secretly” racist. Instead, we'll take a compassionate but realistic look at ourselves as imperfect animals with defensive instincts.

What is implicit racial bias?

An important foundation for what we’ll talk about today is the concept of implicit racial bias. This refers to unconscious attitudes and tendencies that happen behind the scenes of what we say and do. These tendencies may not look like in-your-face racism. Nevertheless, they contribute to perpetuating racism in our society.

Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes and tendencies that happen behind the scenes of what we say and do.

Implicit bias is so well-documented in psychology research that there are non-profits and bestselling books devoted to the topic. Instead of enumerating the many research findings here, I’ll refer you to books like Blindspot to get...

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'Whoa' or 'Woah'?

“Whoa” can mean “stop,” like in this Keanu Reeves clip from “Sweet November,” or it can mean “wow,” like he often said in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”

It’s supposed to be spelled W-H-O-A, but I keep seeing it spelled W-O-A-H and hearing complaints from other people who see it spelled that way.

The Origin of ‘Whoa’

Here's a way to remember the proper spelling: “Who” and “ho” are two origins that are often cited for “whoa.” For example, Dictionary.com states that “ho” came first as a Middle English command to make a horse stop and then evolved sometime around 1620 into “whoa.” To remember how to spell “whoa,” remember that the original word—“ho,” something you'd say to a horse—stays intact in the middle of the word.

‘Whoa’ in Shakespeare

Also, in 1616 in the play "The Winter's Tale," William Shakespeare had a character known only as Shepherd call out "Whoa-ho-hoa!" Say it in your mind: “whoa-ho-hoa.” Say it loudly like Santa Claus: “whoa-ho-hoa!” The extra “ho”s after the “whoa” should also help you remember to keep the H-O, “ho,” in the middle.

The ‘Woah’ Spelling

And what about the other spelling that most editors would tell you is wrong?

I’ve seen multiple people argue that the two spellings mean different things. That what we consider the correct spelling is how you tell a horse to stop, and what we consider the wrong spelling is how you express wonderment, like “Wooooaaaahhh.”  And some people are definitely making a distinction that way, but it’s not the accepted way to write it yet. 

I’ve also seen multiple people comment that W-O-A-H looks like it should be pronounced “whoa-ah” since it looks like it should rhyme with “Noah,” and wow, did that ruin any chance of it having a different meaning for me! Now that I’ve seen it that way, I can’t unsee it.

In a...

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4 Ways to Make Your Readers Laugh

Adding humor to your writing is more than just telling a few jokes or dropping in some funny sounding names. It's more than relying on tried-and-true tropes and truisms.

It's more about creating unusual situations for characters to react to, or catching your readers pleasantly off-guard with unexpected connections.

A law firm called Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe is only going to be funny once. Two dentists named Ketchem and Pullem has a limited shelf life.

Ken Jennings explained the secret to good humor writing in his book, “Planet Funny.” He wrote, "Don't say funny things, say things funny."

There are as many as 12 different theories and practices you can use to get a laugh with your writing that go beyond advice like “use words that end in K" or “use funny names.”

You can find rich sources of humor if you can tell a story where normal people are in an unusual situation, or unusual people are in a normal situation. That's a comedy screenwriting technique called “Fish Out Of Water,” and you can see it in TV shows like “Schitt's Creek,” “Community,” or “Big Bang Theory,” or even great movies like “Back To The Future.”

You can tell stories like that all day long, mining a variety of situations for all kinds of humor, and never once resort to a name like Harry Plopper.

Let's look at four of the most frequently used sources of humor you can use to get your audience laughing.

1. Iceberg theory

The first is called iceberg theory. It isn't officially a humor technique, but it's important to most good writing including humor.

Iceberg theory refers to the fact that the portion of the iceberg that you can see is supported by the much larger portion that's underwater.

The American author Ernest Hemingway created the idea of the iceberg theory, telling writers that they needed to have all kinds of knowledge and details in their minds when they wrote about a subject. As he said in his story, "Death In The Afternoon”:

If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.

Humor works on the iceberg theory, because you're only describing the parts of the story that are needed to get a reaction out of your reader. You can leave out the extra details, and the readers will think for themselves and fill in the details with...

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Where Should Your Dog Sleep?

Some clients tell me, with pride, that they never allow their dog on the bed. Some clients tell me, with embarrassment, that their dog sleeps next to them. Some clients tell me, laughing nervously, that when they get into bed with their dog, the dog growls at their approaching spouse. Where does your dog sleep? And where should she sleep?

First, the short answer. If everybody who uses the bed is comfortable and safe, I have no problem just because one (or more) of you happens to be a dog. Letting your pup share the bed with you will not make her “dominant” or create behavior problems that don’t already exist. It will make your bed hairy and smelly, but if that doesn’t bother you then it doesn’t bother me.

And now, 7 instances when your dog shouldn’t share your bed, or at least not share it automatically:

1. During housetraining
2. Before you know how big your dog is going to be
3. If your dog doesn't want to sleep in the bed
4. If your dog snores or is flatulent or incontinent
5. Because you don't feel like it
6. If your dog behaves aggressively
7. If your dog is pushy

1. During housetraining

Confinement between toilet outings makes housetraining much more efficient. A big puppy can get off the bed and go pee and poop in a corner overnight; a very tiny puppy may find that the end of the bed is far enough from her sleeping spot to make a nice toilet. However, a puppy in an appropriately sized crate will hold it but whine or scratch to let you know she needs a break. Get up and take her out, then put her back to bed. In her crate.

2. Before you have some idea how big he’s going to be

A 40-pound dog who sleeps curled up in a ball will probably fit tidily in a bed with two small or medium-size people. Not so much an 80-pounder who sprawls. If you adopt a mixed-breed puppy, you might want to hold off on the co-sleeping till you have some idea of whether letting him in the bed will leave any room in it for you. It’s harder to teach a dog to stay off a bed he’s used to sleeping on than to teach him to stick to his own comfy bed in the first place.

It’s harder to teach a dog to stay off a bed he’s used to sleeping on than to teach him to stick to his own comfy bed in the first place.

3. If your dog doesn’t want to sleep in the bed

Maybe he has a heavy coat and it’s just too warm in the bed with you. Maybe you’re a restless sleeper and keep waking him up. Maybe he likes to change sleeping places a couple of times over the course of the night. Either way, it does no one...

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Video: Elastic Upper-Body Workout

One of the most attractive elements of these bands is how compact and lightweight they are. They can be stored in your junk drawer or tucked away in a cupboard, which makes them perfect for your home or office. This 4-movement workout requires no change of clothes and is also perfect for your home or office, 

The Workout

After a quick warm-up rotation, do 10 reps of these 4 exercises:

1. Lateral pull-downs
2. Lateral raises
3. Band pull-aparts
4. Band chest-press

I only do one set of each exercise, in a circuit, in the video. But I suggest you go through the entire routine two or three times, depending on your fitness level and the time available.

The first time you do this workout, you may be unsure which resistance band to choose. I suggest choosing a very thin/light band at first so you don't risk getting too sore or hurting yourself. You can always increase the level of resistance next time.

Resistance band reminders

Remember that the more you stretch a resistance band, the more intense the resistance gets, and the harder the exercise becomes. By starting all of these exercises with your hands about shoulder-width apart, you should be able to keep some tension on the band at all times and get a really good workout!

The more you stretch a resistance band, the more intense the resistance gets, and the harder the exercise becomes.

Doing these movements using resistance bands can feel a little unsteady or wobbly, which means you'll need to focus and work a little harder to maintain good form. Believe me, this is a good thing! This instability factor means your workout targets what we fitness pros call your stabilizer muscles as well as other muscle groups. This means you're building stability while you are building strength. 

For more information and a few more resistance band workout videos, check out my article called How to Use Resistance Bands for Your Home Workout.

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How Can Your Small Shop Get Off To a Roaring Start?

Are you just trying to get your own shop or retail business off the ground? Do you have physical items to sell but don’t have the capital to open a brick-and-mortar store? With the latest iPad point-of-sale (POS) systems, you can sell your products, manage your inventory, show your products to potential customers, and even analyze your progress. This allows you unparalleled flexibility to alter your business strategy for the best results in today’s rapidly changing retail landscape.

Whether your own shop or retail boutique is still a glimmer in your eye or you’ve investigated avenues to making it a reality, you may not realize just how easy it can be to get up and selling. Renting retail space may not make as much sense during a pandemic, but there are other ways to get your products in front of your prospective customers beyond the online arena.

One such way is to investigate opportunities for popup store locations in your area. Farmers markets are great for this, but you need a location that’s equally effective in warm or cold weather. All across the country, malls are looking to repurpose themselves as their anchor department stores go bust. Many mall owners, noting the consumer trend toward buying local, are looking to fill these spaces with small-scale merchants like you. Combining a popup location when it’s cool with an outdoor spot when it’s warm could give you an effective high-traffic spot without shelling out what it would cost to rent, say, space in a strip mall or downtown location.

Get up and running

When you think of opening up your own store, you probably picture a daunting checklist as long as your arm and myriad expenses that would make launching such a venture unacceptably risky. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Today’s POS providers offer packages that can get you up and running for less outlay than you might imagine.

Part of the problem with traditional POS systems was that they were so cumbersome to learn that you could spend a month digging into their complexities and still be unable to perform some basic functions. iPad POS systems are far more intuitive, which means you’ll be able to take advantage of everything the system can do within hours, not days, weeks, or months. At first, you’ll barely be scratching the surface of your system’s capabilities, but as you grow you’ll be well served to take advantage of key features such as inventory management and customer tracking.

Optimize your inventory

The true power of today’s mobile POS systems lies in their ability to track your sales and help you manage your inventory based on your results over time. What do you sell the most and when do...

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5 Options for Your Retirement Account When Leaving a Job

One of the most common retirement questions I receive is what to do with a retirement account when leaving a job. Knowing your options for managing a retirement plan with an old employer is essential because most people change jobs many times throughout their careers. And millions of Americans remain out of work during the pandemic.

When you have a workplace retirement plan such as a 401(k) or 403(b), you can take your vested balance with you when you leave.

Fortunately, when you have a workplace retirement plan such as a 401(k) or 403(b), you can take your vested balance with you when you leave. It doesn't matter if you quit, get fired, or get laid off, the same rules apply. 

This post will cover five options for managing your retirement account when your employment ends. You'll learn the rules for handling a retirement plan at an old job and the best move to create a secure financial future.

Why should you use a retirement account?

Investing money using one or more retirement accounts is wise because they come with terrific tax advantages. They defer or eliminate the tax on your contributions and investment earnings, which may allow you to accumulate a bigger balance than with a taxable brokerage account.

Investing money using one or more retirement accounts is wise. If you have a retirement plan at work but aren't participating in it, now's the time to enroll!

So, if you have a retirement plan at work but aren't participating in it, now's the time to enroll! Contribute as much as you can, even if it's just a small amount. Make a goal to increase your contribution rate each year until you're putting away at least 10% to 15% of your pre-tax income.

FREE RESOURCE: Retirement Account Comparison Chart (PDF)—a handy one-page download to see the retirement account rules at a glance.

What is a retirement account rollover?

Don't make the mistake of thinking that once you leave a job with a 401(k) or a 403(b) you can't continue getting tax breaks....

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