I travel a lot and it's funny but I always find myself visiting cemeteries and taking pictures. I realized that it's because every culture has very different ideas about how to bury the dead. We can all learn a lot from people based on their cemeteries.

Excellent analysis and writing. The Republicans as we now know and quite surprisingly didn't win a decisive election and abolish Social Security. Also, the credit bonanza still continues because credit cards don't really need to be collateralized.

Helpful list. My favorite advice about writing: someone has to die in the first sentence.

I love this so very much. You can hang that on your wall.

I relate to the rejection part of this beautifully written piece. Perhaps I relate more to the pressure of moving through this world as a woman. You know, that just pisses me off. If we are all "one", sharing granules of the same stardust, then we should all relate to each others' experiences. I believe that you have composed a description of a universal experience. Congrats.

"Their margins are insanely high (35–40%)." I haven't looked at Apple's 10-K ... ever. But assuming you are talking about net profit margins - yes that is crazy high, but not completely out of the question for vertical distribution companies. They run their own stores and 30% of their revenue comes from their stores, brick and mortar and online. If they weren't showing that level of net profit margins, I'd be even more concerned.