Columns

Maybe I didn’t choose to wear the mascot costume. Maybe it chose me.

The Democrats in Washington are doing another one of their zillion-dollar smash-and-grabs.

Just as I was wondering whether various crises were coming too fast to allow our usual “silly season” of oddball late summer news, an appropriately weird-sounding social trend popped up on social networks and intriguingly struck a nerve.

Facing fierce competition in the job market, prospective employees are shelling out $1,000 for a professional headshot hoping to gain an edge.

In my current line of work, I spend a considerable amount of time behind the wheel and staring through a windshield. These days I do far more driving than I used to do back in my teaching days when I spent no fewer than 10 hours a day in the same room, Room 16, in an old high school building over in St. Marys, a building that no longer blocks the view of Skip Baughman Stadium from West South Street.

Inflation and supply chain challenges have driven up the prices of everything from gas to food. Nevertheless, most of us adjust by reallocating our resources from our wants to our needs.

With the possible exception of setting up a new cell phone account, obtaining financing for a car is one of the most confusing and frustrating transactions most of us do in our lives.

The Ohio State Teachers’ Retirement System recently voted to give investment staff millions of dollars in new bonuses — an ill-advised decision that retirees and Ohio taxpayers will rightly resent as they struggle to keep pace with record inflation.

This election season we’ll hear a lot about the economy, inflation, product shortages and labor shortages. We will also hear a lot about immigration in the context of border security, about the importance of stemming the flow of undocumented migrants and about a southern border that is not protected properly. The recent tragedy in Texas leading to the deaths of 53 migrant men, women and children is evidence of this.

The new college football season is upon us, and it comes at a moment of considerable upheaval.