A blog post from Sloshspot–a search site for bars, clubs, and other nightlife activities–called If Marijuana Production Were Legal: Projected Tax Revenues, by State. Love it or hate it, people smoke marijuana – lots of it. In some states marijuana consumption and posession have been decriminalized, and even legalized for medicinal purposes. But, have you [...]

From The Awl blog: Homeless Chic? It Still Costs Thousands of Dollars “So let’s see! That’s $1765 already, not counting the two shirts and the boots, for what basically look like exquisitely-made clothes you found in a dumpster. Also don’t forget what are surely a $140 pair of socks. (Do the kids wear socks these [...]

A blog we like: Thought Gadgets, reflection on “advertising, the marketing, and the media.” Blame Flannel Shirts on Wall Street and Narcissus is a typically quirky post:

To understand the current flannel fashion, let’s walk over to Wall Street and Greek mythology. First up, market psychology. There’s a saying that investors don’t pick stocks based on what they think will happen…or even what they think others predict will happen. Instead, market investors are three steps removed — if you think everyone else believes that others think the stock will go up, then you buy the stock. We guess about others’ desires to stay ahead.

Black Friday, as inveterate shoppers well know, is the name for the Friday after Thanksgiving, which marks the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. This year, the day falls on November 27th. From Wikipedia: Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employees have the day off (with the exceptions of those employed [...]

We don’t wish to add to the considerable woes of the publishing industry, but if you’re looking for some low-hanging fruit in terms of cutting expenses, buying books may be it. The marriage of electronic books and libraries has made it easier than ever to access free reading material online. And we’re not just talking [...]

From Vanity Plates: Creepiness in 8 Characters or Less.

The Awl recently culled these facts about food stamps from various news articles: 1. “Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, researchers say.” 2. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture said nearly 200,000 retailers nationwide now accept food stamps, 20 percent [...]

According to the AP, “The worst U.S. recession since World War II and the lure of the Internet have combined to make the (newspaper) industry’s annual ad revenue $20 billion less than it was three years ago.” But why read about the decline of newspaper circulation in, say, a newspaper or even on a newspaper’s [...]

McDonald’s is closing in Iceland because the collapse of the country’s currency has doubled the cost of importing the ingredients the fast-food chain uses.

Around the world, though, the Golden Arches is still a golden goose. September sales were up 5% as “consumers sought low-cost meals,” according to Forbes.

But we don’t need a quarterly report to tell us that McDonald’s is still going strong in the U.S. We know that from this post from the blog Weather Sealed:

…just how far away can you get from our world of generic convenience? And how would you figure that out?

Has the recession left you with a lot of time but not a lot of dough? Or a lot of dough but not a lot of money? There’s help, as always, online. Recession Cooking – Try “feel better tea,” which includes ginger, honey, fennel seeds, and–if you really want to fell better and you’re not [...]