Author: Peter Funt

  • Vacation Checklist

    If you’re getting ready for summer vacation, here’s a handy checklist of things you won’t need. A map. Remember those? I’m referring to the kind you got for free at the gas station. When spread out it covered the entire backseat, yet never had quit…

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  • The Maryland Muddle

    When rational thinking fails or is simply ignored, conflation often takes over. It is, by definition, the merging of two or more different sets of information or opinion into one. President Trump is a master conflator. For instance, he cites horrib…

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  • The Photo with Borderline Truth

    The little girl at the border with tears in her eyes. We saw her on front pages, on TV newscasts and on the cover of Time magazine. It’s a powerful image – perhaps more responsible than anything else for forcing a change in the administration’s poli…

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  • Boom Times in the Golden State

    SAN FRANCISCO – Welcome to the Hotel California. You can check out any time you like but, to paraphrase the Eagles, your money can never leave. The state has a problem faced by few others: What to do with roughly $13 billion in extra money. Tax…

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  • Many Unhappy Returns

    Domino’s offers to “insure” your purchase in the event your car is crushed by a tree and you slip on an icy sidewalk causing the pizza you are holding to land in a snow bank. It’s either the dumbest marketing scheme ever hatched or the most brilliant. …

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  • Honestly, We’re Really Very Sorry

    An open letter to our customers: We let you down. We’re sorry. And we’re going to fix it. When it was disclosed that we willfully misrepresent the amount of sugar in our products, our first reaction was to issue a denial. That was wrong. Since th…

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  • Getting There Is Now One-Tenth of One Percent the Fun

    I’ve just returned from my summer vacation, which I now take in mid-May so I can use the remaining time until Labor Day to recover. Here’s what I learned. At many airports the TSA’s Pre-Check lines are as long as the ordinary lines. Perhaps they ne…

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  • Baseball Bobbles Its Giveaways

    The 1966 baseball season was particularly memorable in St. Louis, and not just because the Cardinals moved to a new $25 million stadium, hosted the All-Star Game, and every few days sent flame-thrower Bob Gibson to the mound where he won 21 games and s…

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  • Trump’s Artful Dodging

    Sometimes it takes a year or more for a president’s strengths to come into focus. In Donald Trump’s case, it is now clear that he excels whenever he bestows upon us the honor of his absence. As Senator John McCain battles cancer at his home in Ariz…

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  • Plenty to Clean Up After Dinner

    What a shame that the people who will profit most from the tempest that was the White House Correspondents’ Dinner are the two who deserve it least: Michelle Wolf and Donald Trump. Pundits, myself included, dissected the event with such gusto that …

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