Senior Women Web

Author: SeniorWomenWeb

  • A White House Message: Women’s History Month and Paycheck Fairness Act

    “In his weekly address, President Obama focused on Women’s History Month and paid homage to the accomplishments of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in the effort to increase the role of women in government. Despite the important strides that have been made to create a more equal society, he emphasized his resolve to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act as an important step towards achieving egalitarian status for women.”

    “March is Women’s History Month, a time not only to celebrate the progress that women have made, but also the women throughout our history who have made that progress possible.  

    “One inspiring American who comes to mind is Eleanor Roosevelt.  In 1961, the former First Lady was unhappy about the lack of women in government, so she marched up to President Kennedy and handed him a three-page list of women who were qualified for top posts in his administration.  This led the President to select Mrs. Roosevelt as the head of a new commission to look at the status of women in America, and the unfairness they routinely faced in their lives.  

    “Though she passed away before the commission could finish its work, the report they released spurred action across the country.  It helped galvanize a movement led by women that would help make our society a more equal place.  

    “It’s been almost fifty years since the Roosevelt commission published its findings — and there have been few similar efforts by the government in the decades that followed. That’s why, last week, here at the White House, we released a new comprehensive report on the status of women in the spirit on the one that was released half a century ago.

    “There was a lot of positive news about the strides we’ve made, even in recent years.  For example, women have caught up with men in seeking higher education.  In fact, women today are more likely than men to attend and graduate from college.  

    “Yet, there are also reminders of how much work remains to be done.  Women are still more likely to live in poverty in this country.  In education, there are areas like math and engineering where women are vastly outnumbered by their male counterparts.  This is especially troubling, for we know that to compete with nations around the world, these are the fields in which we need to harness the talents of all our people. That’s how we’ll win the future.

    “And, today, women still earn on average only about 75 cents for every dollar a man earns.  That’s a huge discrepancy.  And at a time when folks across this country are struggling to make ends meet — and many families are just trying to get by on one paycheck after a job loss — it’s a reminder that achieving equal pay for equal work isn’t just a women’s issue.  It’s a family issue.  

    “In one of my first acts as President, I signed a law so that women who’ve been discriminated against in their salaries could have their day in court to make it right.  But there are steps we should take to prevent that from happening in the first place.  That’s why I was so disappointed when an important bill to give women more power to stop pay disparities — the Paycheck Fairness Act — was blocked by just two votes in the Senate.  And that’s why I’m going to keep up the fight to pass the reforms in that bill.  

    “Achieving equality and opportunity for women isn’t just important to me as President.  It’s something I care about deeply as the father of two daughters who wants to see his girls grow up in a world where there are no limits to what they can achieve.  

    “As I’ve traveled across the country, visiting schools and meeting young people, I’ve seen so many girls passionate about science and other subjects that were traditionally not as open to them.  We even held a science fair at the White House, where I met a young woman named Amy Chyao. She was only 16 years old, but she was actually working on a treatment for cancer.  She never thought, ‘Science isn’t for me.’  She never thought, ‘Girls can’t do that.’  She was just interested in solving a problem.  And because someone was interested in giving her a chance, she has the potential to improve lives.

    “That tells me how far we’ve come.  But it also tells me we have to work even harder to close the gaps that still exist, and to uphold that simple American ideal: we are all equal and deserving of the chance to pursue our own version of happiness.  That’s what Eleanor Roosevelt was striving toward half a century ago.  That’s why this report matters today.  And that’s why, on behalf of all our daughters and our sons, we’ve got to keep making progress in the years ahead.”  

  • HUD Sued For Illegal Reverse Mortgage Foreclosure Actions

    The AARP Foundation has issued the following press release:

    Three surviving spouses of reverse mortgage borrowers filed a lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), alleging that the agency had abandoned long-established federal rules and violated protections for surviving spouses, with the result that the three individuals are now facing imminent foreclosure and eviction from their homes.

    The plaintiffs, from Indiana, New York, and Maryland, are represented by AARP Foundation Litigation and the Washington, DC law firm of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC.  The lawsuit, filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks an injunction prohibiting HUD from abandoning long-standing rules and from illegally foreclosing on surviving spouses.  These arbitrary changes allow lenders to initiate foreclosure and eviction actions against the plaintiffs.

    The case will have broad national implications, because the outcome will determine whether spouses will be able to stay in homes that are now “underwater” as a result of the housing downturn, a possibility that reverse mortgage borrowers have always paid insurance premiums to protect against.

    HUD rules in place since 1989 clearly state that a borrower or heirs would never owe more than the home was worth at the time of repayment. But at the end 2008, HUD abruptly changed the policy and said that an heir — including a surviving spouse who was not named on the mortgage — must pay the full mortgage balance to keep the home, even it if exceeds the value of the property.  This does not just violate HUD rules; it violates existing contracts between reverse mortgage borrowers and lenders, and negates a key purpose for which borrowers had been paying insurance premiums.

    “HUD has inexplicably turned existing reverse mortgage policies upside down,” said Jean Constantine-Davis, a senior attorney with AARP Foundation Litigation, in discussing HUD’s actions.  “These are older individuals with limited means who have been blindsided by arbitrary, retroactive decision making.”

    Steven A. Skalet, of Mehri & Skalet PLLC, stated, “Rather than protecting borrowers, HUD retroactively changed the terms of the loans to make these elderly borrowers’ spouses and heirs pay more to keep their home than an unrelated purchaser would have to pay to purchase the property.”  He added:  “This is shameful and we intend to make HUD honor the representations and promises they made to borrowers when they signed up for these government-insured loans.”

    A reverse mortgage is a loan that allows older homeowners to convert the equity in their homes into cash.  It is the “reverse” of a traditional mortgage, in which the borrower repays the borrowed sum on a monthly basis.  Reverse mortgage borrowers receive money in exchange for their home equity.

    Reverse mortgage borrowers are not required to make monthly or other periodic payments to repay the loan.  Instead, the loan balance increases over time and the loan does not become due and payable until one of several specific events occur, for example, the last homeowner dies, moves permanently, or sells the home.

    The loans are insured under the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program, and because of the complexity of the program and because it is specifically tailored to meet the needs of those 62 and older, Congress included special protections for HECM borrowers.

  • “The frown, the roughness of the traveller set me at my ease”; A New Jane Eyre Movie Version

    “Something of daylight still lingered, and the moon was waxing bright: I could see him plainly. His figure was enveloped in a riding cloak, fur collared, and steel clasped; its details were not apparent, but I traced the general points of middle height, and considerable breadth of chest. He had a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow; his eyes and gathered eyebrows looked ireful and thwarted just now; he was past youth, but had not reached middle age; perhaps he might be thirty-five. I felt no fear of him, and but little shyness. Had he been a handsome, heroic-looking young gentleman, I should not have dared to stand thus questioning him against his will, and offering my services unasked. I had hardly ever seen a handsome youth; never in my life spoken to one. I had a theoretical reverence and homage for beauty, elegance, gallantry, fascination; but had I met those qualities incarnate in masculine shape, I should have known instinctively that they neither had nor could have sympathy with anything in me, and should have shunned them as one would fire, lightning, or anything else that is bright but antipathetic. “

    “If even this stranger had smiled and been good-humoured to me when I addressed him; if he had put off my offer of assistance gaily and with thanks, I should have gone on my way and not felt any vocation to renew inquiries: but the frown, the roughness of the traveller set me at my ease: I retained my station when he waved to me to go,  and announced: — “

    “I cannot think of leaving you, sir at so late an hour, in this solitary lane, till I see you are fit to mount your horse.”

    — Jane Eyre, p. 83 of the Random House 1943 edition,  by Charlotte Brontë  with wood engravings by Fritz Eichenberg.

    And so you may read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë online; audio book versions are available, too. There is yet another film version appearing, following some 18 other film versions (reportedly initiated by a 1910 silent movie, and 9 made-for-television programs). This stars  Mia Wasikowska as Jane, who is best remembered for her role as a 19-year old Alice in Wonderland.  Michael Fassbender plays Mr. Rochester.

    The Bronte Society is holding a summer conference at Homerton College, Cambridge, just one of a number of events this year:

  • CRR: Do Parents Live It Up When Children Fly the Coop?

    * The authors are all with the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.  Norma B. Coe is associate director of research, Zhenya Karamcheva is a research associate, and Anthony Webb is a research economist.

    Introduction

    With the virtual disappearance of traditional pensions, declining Social Security replacement rates, and longer life spans, the retirement landscape is shifting dramatically.  Today, responsibility for a comfortable retirement rests mostly on the individual. This change has led to widespread concern about the  adequacy of households’ retirement savings.

    Experts disagree on whether Americans are adequately prepared for retirement.  A Center for Retirement Research (CRR) study conducted before the financial crisis estimated that 43 percent of households are ‘at risk’ of being unable to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living in retirement. 1 In  contrast, another well-publicized study that compares optimal savings with that reported in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) concluded that less than 4 percent of Americans are behind in their retirement saving.

    The difference in the estimated number of individuals under-saving for retirement depends crucially on the assumption of what parents do with the money that is freed up when their children leave home. The CRR study assumes that households maintain relatively constant consumption over time, which implies that parents increase their consumption when their children become financially independent. In contrast, the optimal savings literature assumes that parents save the additional amount.  Parents benefit from this strategy in two ways. First, they are able to quickly build up retirement savings. Second, they keep their per-person consumption low and thus need less money to fund consumption in retirement. The question remains: which assumption matches what parents actually do?

    This brief presents the findings of a new study that investigates how, in fact, households behave.  It shows that parents maintain household-level and increase per-capita consumption when their children leave home.  These findings challenge the idea that parents will automatically save more for retirement when their children are independent, indicating that more households are at risk of an unsatisfactory retirement.

    This brief is organized as follows.  The first section explains a prominent theoretical model of household savings behavior.  The second section describes the data and methodology, while the third section reports the findings.  The final section concludes that many households are at risk of falling short of maintaining even the consumption level they had while raising their children, let alone the higher level they have enjoyed since their children flew the coop.

    Theoretical Models of  Household Savings Behavior

    According to the life-cycle model of savings behavior, households should time their savings in order to smooth consumption over their lifetime. Households might aim to enjoy approximately the same level of consumption in all periods, both before and after retirement.  This objective would imply that households would save more when income is high and less when income is low.

    But households’ needs vary over the life cycle, and may be particularly high when children are at home.  Food, clothing, and karate classes all cost money, and so households might optimally plan to spend more during this period.  Once the children leave, parents would reduce total household consumption, but maintain the same level of per-capita consumption.  This behavior would lead to higher saving, and the  total amount of retirement savings needed would be relatively low because the household aims to replace the lower consumption enjoyed after the kids left  home, not the higher level enjoyed previously.  This pattern is illustrated as Scenario 2, and can be thought of as the per-capita-consumption smoothing assumption.

    These two assumptions have very different implications for the optimal timing and amount of retirement savings.  A household that plans for a constant level of consumption (Scenario 1) has a high target level of retirement saving, and will not dramatically reduce household spending when the children leave home.  However, if the household plans on spending more when the children are home (Scenario 2), it should noticeably decrease consumption and increase retirement savings when the children leave the nest. We test which of these patterns best fits the consumption data.

  • An Attic Tragedy; Losing a Filmed History of Childhood

    I’ll never forget when we opened a Sarasota, Florida attic after my father’s death. The humidity and heat had destroyed the 16mm film that recorded my first years until preteenhood. Therefore, if it’s not too late, follow the NEDCC guidelines that are available before a similar experience occurs.Book illustration LOC

    The Northeast Document Conservation Center offers free leaflets that set out in great detail processes to follow in order to preserve collections. These are for private and family collections.

    NEDCC provides printable Preservation Leaflets with information on a wide variety of preservation topics, supplier contact information, and links to additional resources. The leaflets may be downloaded at no cost.

    The leaflets were recently updated with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. To receive notification when a new or updated leaflet is available, please contact Julie Martin, jmartin@nedcc.org.

    Each year, NEDCC answers more than 1,200 phone and email inquiries about general preservation issues ranging from insect infestation to basic conservation methods to sources of preservation suppliers. If you have a question, contact NEDCC staff at www.nedcc.org/ask/email.php.

    Here are some of the frequently asked questions of the NEDCC:

    How can I remove the musty smell from old books?

    There is no guaranteed way to remove the musty smell from old books, but there are several strategies that may be successful. A musty smell is most often noted in books that have been exposed to high relative humidity and may have been moldy or mildewed in the past.

    One strategy involves creating an enclosed chamber. This is most easily done by using two plastic garbage cans, one large (with a lid) and one small. An odor-absorbing material should be placed in the bottom of the larger can. Materials that absorb odors include baking soda, charcoal briquettes (without lighter fluid), kitty litter, and Zeolites. The object to be “deodorized” should be placed in the smaller can, which is then placed inside the larger can. The lid should then be placed on the larger can, and the chamber should be left for some time. Monitor the material periodically, since the time required to reduce the odors will vary from object to object.

    A second option is the use of paper containing Zeolite molecular traps. Known as MicroChamber® products, these papers have proven very effective in removing odors. Place a sheet of the lightweight, 100% cotton interleaving tissue between the front board and the endpaper, every 100 pages throughout the volume, and again between the back board and endpaper. Close the book and set it aside until the odor is reduced. It may be necessary to replace interleaving several times, putting new sheets at different locations in the book. For product information and supplies contact Conservation Resources at (800) 634-6932.

    Our basement flooded and the pages of my high school yearbook are stuck together — what can I do?

  • Shopping and Sewing at B&J Fabrics

    Guipure lace, Liberty of London (silk twill, Tana lawn, cotton, jersey and corduroy; Chantilly lace, Navajo wool, Japanese cotton, Ikat … we could go on.

    In all honesty, we no longer sew clothes but more often fabrics for the home but when we saw the fabrics that the late, sadly lamented, Gourmet magazine used for their articles to cradle dishes and dishware, we investigated. Liberty Tana Lawn a B&J Fabrics

    We weren’t disappointed; we were impressed. They do carry the largest selection of Liberty of London fabrics online. There are 41 Tweed selections, 72 cotton Batik choices and 260 silk prints.

    Samples are encouraged prior to ordering. “Images are a poor substitute for the beauty of our fabric.” “Our store has also been featured on popular primetime reality television shows, including Bravo’s Project Runway and The Fashion Show, as well as CBS’ The Cut. B&J is regularly featured in various fashion and lifestyle magazines and books, including Zagat’s New York City Shopping Guide, where, for nearly a decade, B&J has generated high stats and rave reviews.”Chantilly lace

  • Do You See Yourself as Inventive? Young Men and Women Don’t Seem to Think They Are

    Invention and innovation are essential to remaining globally competitive, and a new Inventionssurvey shows an untapped group of potential inventors in the US. The 2011 Lemelson-MIT Invention Index indicates that American women ages 16-25 possess many characteristics necessary to become inventors, such as creativity, interest in science and math, desire to develop altruistic inventions, and preference for working in groups or with mentors — yet they still do not see themselves as inventive. Young men in the same age group echo these characteristics, highlighting the need to cultivate young adults’ interest in science and math, while educating and inspiring them about the impact they can have on others through invention.

    The annual Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, which gauges Americans’ perceptions about invention and innovation, this year surveyed young men and women ages 16-25. Almost three in four young women (71 percent) indicate they are creative, the characteristic they most associate with inventors (63 percent); however, less than one in three (27 percent) describe themselves as inventive. Men also follow this trend; 66 percent say they are creative but only 39 percent describe themselves as inventive.

    Further demonstrating inventive traits, young women show a strong affinity for math and science — two of every five female respondents (42 percent) rate these as their favorite subjects in school. More than half of male respondents (53 percent) agree. 35 percent of young women also say they have a family member working in a field related to science, technology, math or engineering. The results reveal young women’s innate interest in inventive fields; however, recent statistics show while more women are entering college and obtaining degrees, less than ten percent earn them in technical majors such as computer and information sciences, engineering or math. This proportionately small group indicates a need to educate women about translating their skills and academic interests into inventive careers.

    Chad Mirkin, a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and 2009 recipient of the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, recently remarked, “This country needs innovative new programs to stimulate the interest of young men and women in STEM and to challenge them to use their intellect and creativity to invent solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. Women have an enormous amount to offer in this regard, but aren’t currently pursuing science or technology fields at a high enough rate.”

    The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index also reveals that young women and men do not see the US as leading the way in invention; 61 percent of young women view Japan as the leader, with the US ranking second at 27 percent. Young men agree, choosing Japan first (54 percent)and the US second (36 percent).

    To improve the US standing, young women cite access to governmental funding (30 percent) and including invention projects during school (36 percent) as the best ways to encourage aspiring inventors. They cite lack of knowledge and concern about funding (65 percent) as the most challenging obstacles. Men agree, noting that providing places to develop inventions (24 percent) is another way to encourage hopeful inventors. The availability of invention tools and education has the potential to boost the quantity of inventive professionals, according to survey respondents.

    Joshua Schuler, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT Program, supports this idea. “Our Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam grants initiative and partnerships with national youth organizations, which have access to millions of young people, inspire and empower youth to invent. To highlight a potential path to success, we also recognize award-winning college and professional innovators as accessible role models. We encourage parents, teachers and leaders at the state and national level to do their part and embrace innovation and seek out invention education experiences for youth.

  • Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera

    Editor’s Note: The Saturday Evening Post’s appearance was eagerly awaited in our house when we were young; Norman Rockwell’s covers for the magazine represented an idealized vision of the country, but one that most appreciated and were comforted by, especially during World War II.composite of the tattoo artist

    To create many of his iconic, quintessentially American paintings, most of which served as magazine covers, Norman Rockwell worked from carefully staged study photographs that are on view for the first time, alongside his paintings, drawings, and related tear sheets, in Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera. The exhibition, which will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum until April 10 was organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, following a two-year project that preserved and digitized almost 20,000 negatives.

    Beginning in the late 1930s, Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978) adopted photography as a tool to bring his illustration ideas to life in studio sessions. Working as a director, he carefully staged his photographs, selecting props, locations, and models and orchestrating every detail. He began by collecting authentic props and costumes, and what he did not have readily available he purchased, borrowed, or rented — from a dime-store hairbrush or coffee cup to a roomful of chairs and tables from a New York City Automat.

    Gossips TearsheetHe created numerous photographs for each new subject, sometimes capturing complete compositions and, in other instances, combining separate pictures of individual elements. Over the forty years that he used photographs as his painting guide, he worked with many skilled photographers, particularly Gene Pelham, Bill Scovill, and Louis Lamone.

    Early in his career Norman Rockwell used professional models, but he eventually found that this method inhibited his evolving naturalistic style. When he turned to photography, he turned to friends and neighbors instead of professional models to create his many detailed study photographs, which he found liberating. Working from black-and-white study photographs also allowed Rockwell more freedom in developing his final work. “If a model has worn a red sweater, I have painted it red — I couldn’t possibly make it green …But when working with photographs I seem able to recompose in many ways: as to form, tone, and color,” Rockwell once commented.

    Girl at Mirror tear sheetIncluded in the exhibition will be more than one hundred framed digital prints alongside paintings, drawings, magazine tear sheets, photographic equipment, and archival letters, as well as an introductory film. Among the paintings on view will be the Brooklyn Museum’s painting The Tattoo Artist — one of many that Rockwell created during World War II — depicting a young sailor stoically having his arm tattooed, shown alongside working photographs by Gene Pelham, and the watercolor Dugout, also from the Museum’s collection, portraying the Chicago Cubs baseball team being jeered by fans of the Boston Braves. This work will be displayed along with the September 4, 1948, Saturday Evening Post cover on which it appeared and study photographs by Gene Pelham.Girl at mirror photo

  • ER: She Wore the Union Label; A Review of She Was One of Us

    by Jo Freeman

    Image from Amazon
    She Was One of Us: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker
     by Brigid O’Farrell
    Cornell University Press
    Cloth, ©2010; 304 pages

    Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) was a chameleon. A child of wealth and privilege, she had a talent for getting people with whom she had little in common to believe that “she was one of us.” During her twelve years as first lady, members of the working class — black and white together — believed that they had a friend in the White House.

    Born in 1884, ER was raised by her maternal grandmother. She inherited her progressive views from her Uncle Teddy, who became President when she was 17, and her independence from the feminist headmistress at the finishing school she attended in London, who taught her to think for herself. She spent her debutante years volunteering at a settlement house on the lower east side of Manhattan, while being courted by her fifth cousin, once removed.

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt got his initial exposure to the problems of ordinary workers through ER and this continued after he became President. Women trade unionists that ER met through the Women’s Trade Union League were invited to their homes in Manhattan and upstate New York, and later to the White House. During her travels, when ER heard stories of employer atrocities that she thought the federal government could respond to, she passed the information on to her husband.

    However, it’s what she did on her own, not just as a conduit to FDR, that made her loved by the workers. ER walked on picket lines, went into mines to inspect working conditions, visited migrant camps and testified before Congress about what she saw. She also wrote.

    On December 31, 1935, ER published her first syndicated newspaper column. Called “My Day,” it appeared six days a week and reached over four million readers of many different newspapers daily. A year later, she joined a new labor union, the American Newspaper Guild, which was affiliated with the CIO — the Congress of Industrial Organizations. ER used her column to talk about workers’ problems, the need for unions, and also to speak to union leaders. Even during wartime she spoke for the right of all workers to join unions.

    ER’s outspoken support gave labor unions what political scientists call “elite legitimation.” Labor unions had been around for a long time but only during FDR’s administration did they acquire mainstream respectability. To this, the first lady made a major contribution.

  • Costco: A Love Story in Four Acts

    by Merrill Markoe*typical Costco interior

    Not only have I never been much of a joiner, I am the rare female whose gender software didn’t come bundled with the genome for ‘love of shopping.’ That makes me the very portrait of someone who didn’t want the bother of purchasing a membership to a market. Already a coerced card carrying ‘member” of two markets in my neighborhood, I lived in dread that they’d one day hold a meeting. And I had gotten so used to living in overpriced Los Angeles where every trip to the market felt like a mugging that I had given up on even looking for a solution.

    But my boyfriend started pushing me to visit Costco and have a gander at the enormous bargains. I resisted at first. It conjured images for me of the way they portrayed Communist bloc totalitarian life in my grade school textbooks:  no sparkle, everything colorless, generic, utilitarian, depressing. I half expected to find ladies in babushkas fighting over a potato.  But eventually, in the interest of pleasing him, I agreed.

    Then to my utter shock, I found I wasn’t just wrong, I was smitten and spellbound. So much so that by the second year, I sprung for the pricier Executive Membership that guaranteed a refund of 2% of my overall annual purchase total. I kind of I doubted it would actually work.  Or that there’s be a hidden catch. So when I received a check for $100 worth of free merchandise, I was thrilled — and I knew I was a  goner.

    Now that I’m in my fifth year of being a Costco-ian, I wondered how exactly the transition from repulsed to semi-fanatic happened. So I decided to take a look back at our golden precious memories, Costco’s and mine, as I explain what I now see as the four stages of my only loving commitment to a Big Box Store.

    Act 1: The Honeymoon

    The first time my heart beat a little faster was when I realized that Pellegrino water at Costco cost half what it did at my local market. Then I noticed that the dried chicken strips for dogs — a dollar apiece at a nearby pet store — were available in a half-pound sack containing 120 of them for … eleven dollars! Could that possibly be right? A savings of 90 percent? Turned out it was right. Even hamburger was a dollar a pound cheaper. A heavenly choir began to sing as the cavernous warehouse that is Costco was bathed in a rosy hue.

    Still, I was not completely sold until I followed up my visit with a little research. Expecting to encounter the usual bad news I read about everything, I learned instead that Costco marked up the items they sold by only 14 to 15 percent, instead of the standard 25 to 50 percent they use at supermarkets. Better still, Costco was apparently nice to its employees, offering both good hourly wages and good benefits.

    Now I was falling in love. No more figuring out where to find the best prices on everything from power tools to potato salad. No more guilt about tortured underpaid workers. I felt safe and warm pushing my wading pool-sized shopping cart past the dozens of free samples tables; enjoying a microscopic shard of chicken/lettuce wrap, a speared morsel of chimichanga, a thimble full of pomegranite juice or steel cut Oatmeal. Yes, sometimes waiting behind the Costco lifers who arrived at noon already wearing lobster bibs, ready for free lunch, could be trying. But wow! That bottle of olive oil so large it required a system of hoists and pullies to lift just lowered the price of sautéing to only pennies a serving. And look … hoists and pullies  for sale just one aisle over! The only hard part was deciding what not to buy. There were so many opportunities for savings lurking everywhere that the trip to the cash register was like crossing The Bermuda Triangle. On my way to buy a crate of gum, I accidentally stumbled into a cache of beautiful leather chairs that cost hundreds less than the very same ones downtown. No, I didn’t actually need any furniture. But one day my furniture might decide to disintegrate. Why spend wastefully! This was too good to pass up.