Common Sense Breaking Out All Over

posted at 4:44 am on April 14, 2009 by Laura Curtis
[ Fun ]   

Another post for the night shift and my fellow insomniacs.    It’s damning with faint praise that these things are even considered newsworthy, but let’s just call that glass half-full, hmm?  That’s what Ben Franklin would do, I’m sure.

Healthy
Some New Orleans hospitals are posting their ER wait times online.  Brilliant!  Hey, you know who else posts wait times on the web?  The NHS posts their non-emergency care wait times so you can know how many weeks you’ll have to wait. But don’t worry! It won’t be more than 18 weeks – a whole semester, if that helps clarify how miserably long 18 weeks is.  The joys of “free” health care.  But I digress.

Wealthy
You’d think this was something from The Onion, but it’s a real article.  A Colorado couple decided to practice personal responsibility and CNN was evidently impressed.

For Sherrie Muldoon, the credit card debt was $46,244. …  Muldoon said the soaring costs of their nine credit cards left them with two options: Either file for bankruptcy or make a drastic lifestyle change. They opted for the latter, she told KUSA.  “We changed everything…to bare-bones minimum,” Muldoon told CNN. “Basically, if it wasn’t essential to support life, we didn’t do it.”  … Muldoon said she found a way to make money by doing extra jobs, including teaching fitness classes at night and cleaning office buildings on the weekends.

These people paid off $46k in three years – now they can relax their lifestyle some yet still save at least $10,000 a year.

Wise
Squirrel detonation.  Spokane is going to blow those nasty little tree-rats to kingdom come with a machine called the Rodenator Pro.  I call this “Epic Win” just for the name.  And if you think they’re oh-so-cute just try having them in your attic, chewing on your wiring.

And a little lagniappe, from MSNBC’s Captain Obvious Department -small cars get better gas mileage but in case of a collision you’re going to wish you’d just paid up at the pump.

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