I like to buy some sassages from da Jools on Kedzie down by dere.

Not even close. Look up “dead peasant insurance.”

Same deal here - one fussy cat and one who will eat anything. The snooty one has decided that Nature’s Variety Ultimate Protein dry is acceptable. It’s not cheap, but his poops are now solid and no longer cause the wallpaper to peel. I don’t know if it’s the lack of grains, but his coat is glossy and I no longer need…

They show at $300 on Best Buy’s web site and on the shelf, but their printed weekly ad has them listed at $230. I grabbed a flyer at the front of the store and showed it to the cashier when I checked out (after confirming that the SKUs were the same - they are), he did a price override. I’m sure that they’ll only…

They show at $300 on Best Buy’s web site and on the shelf, but their printed weekly ad has them listed at $230. I…

They’re $230 at Best Buy this week.

They’re $230 at Best Buy this week.

Personal loans (not to be confused with payday loans, which are pure evil), secured “credit builder” personal loans in particular, are commonly used as score-boosting tools, so you’re fine. The clock starts ticking when you take out the loan, not when you close it, so you’re still getting the age benefit regardless of…

Same here. My mortgage score was 739 when I did my preapproval, but it recently jumped up to 770, so I had the loan officer do a fresh credit pull. It’s another hard inquiry, but I figured it was worth it to qualify for the best interest rate. As for the “regular” FICO scores, my thinking was that having three scores…

The score for car loans is still another model.

You can also buy things like, I dunno, a luxury apartment in, say, Trump Tower NYC, for much more than its actual market value. I’m sure that it’s a coincidence that lots of Russian oligarchs own units there.

They were doing this in the late 90s, but at least the technology prevented them from getting too ham-fisted with it. I remember seeing Ghostbusters on one of the networks back then, and the audio was pitched noticeably higher. That pitch shift can be compensated for these days, but it was more trouble than it was…

Gosh, think of all the money laundering and espionage that’s gone down in Trump’s building in NY and the country club where he spends most of his time. Just a suggestion, cops of the town where Mar-A-Lago is located - think of all the tanks and military grade toys you could buy. Why waste your time robbing serfs when…

Dude, #1 isn’t how taxes work. At all. We have marginal tax rates. You don’t pay a higher rate for your entire income, you pay that higher rate on the PORTION of your income that’s within that tax bracket.

It was jarring to see Scott Thompson play a straight-laced (emphasis on straight) forensics guy on the NBC show Hannibal.

In general, your score will increase as the negative items age off. However, you might also see a temporary (and possibly significant) score *drop* due to something called rebucketing. Basically, your score takes into account how your file looks in comparison to people with similar characteristics. You might have been…

Basically, you qualify for the best rates at 740, but are pretty much a shoo-in at 760. Beyond that is gravy. I’m in the middle of buying a house right now, and there was a .125% difference between 740 and 760 at my lender. Mine score was 770, so I went for it; it adds up. Bear in mind that mortgage scores aren’t the…

The Cook’s Country (America’s Test Kitchen spinoff) icebox lemon cheesecake always goes over well around here. Lemon cookie crust, lemon curd on top, fairly mild filling. *Huge* number of dirty dishes, because ATK.

I’ve had a refurb V6 Motorhead (I call it Lemmy) for nine months or so, and it’s pretty damn great. The listed 15 minute battery life is a bit misleading - just let go of the trigger when you’re moving something out of the way and you’ll stretch it out easily. And it picks up a startling amount of crap from your…

I’ve had a refurb V6 Motorhead (I call it Lemmy) for nine months or so, and it’s pretty damn great. The listed 15…

The world ends.

Fun fact - until the early 20th Century, pink was called “light red” and was considered masculine and assertive. It’s crazy how marketers and their made-up pink/blue crap have completely shaped our culture.

Flat taxes don’t work because the less money you make, the more it hurts you. If you’re making 200,000, you can easily live off of 180,000. If you’re making 20,000, your belly is going to be keenly aware of every penny of that 2,000 you no longer have.