Daddy & Me time with Lucy.

My favorite animal at the zoo.

🦉

Man Crushed To Death By Giant Pile Of Cheese After Refusing To Tell Olive Garden Waitress To Stop - The Babylon Bee

According to diners who saw the accident, the man locked eyes with his server and sat in stoic silence as mountains of cheese piled all around him.

Made it to the ocean.

Southwest Airlines, USAA, and CarMax used to be a few of my corporate heroes. Companies that I could rely on to do the right thing, to put their customers first, and deliver outstanding experience each time. The past decade has been hard on all three.

Southwest started faltering when they merged with AirTran. A whole new crop of employees suddenly changed uniforms, but they didn’t change cultures. Instead of warm, friendly employees at every encounter, Southwest started to look and feel a lot more like their cattle-call competitors.

USAA needed to grow their membership, so they opened it up to anyone who had served honorably. A massive new pool of members rushed in the door and USAA had to staff up quickly. Phone hold times extended, employees grew more corporate, and the overachievers disappeared into thin air.

CarMax build a brand on car buying the way it should be. In a slimy business, they stood out. Their cars were better than average, cleaner than average, and backed up by a no-questions asked warranty. But they could only build so many superstores, and many smaller markets would never support that volume. So, they came up with a new small-market format store and spread far and wide. New employees missed the memo, and now they deliver overpriced cars with an underwhelming experience.

The thread that ties together these three stories is growth at the cost of fundamentals. They needed to grow, and they did, but they forgot to bring their new team members into the culture. Any bozo can run an airline, issue insurance, or sell used cars. It takes a truly great company to turn customers into raving fans. And when the great fall, it’s time for the market to go looking for new companies that act like the greats used to.

A Popular Tax Trick for Savers, the Mega ‘Back Door’ Roth IRA, Is Eliminated in House Bill - WSJ

The IRA measures will raise tax revenue to help pay for items such as universal prekindergarten and lower prescription drug prices.

What an accounting trick!

They eliminate the tax payments the government receives today from a 35 year old couple making backdoor Roth IRA in exchange for taxes paid at withdrawal on a traditional IRA at least 25 years away, but book the assumed additional tax revenue today.

This is Enron-style accounting.

Of course, many models suggest that these high earners that Congress is targeting would be better off using a pre-tax strategy during peak earnings years anyways. The assumptions made by this Congress are dubious, to say the least.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the Democratic leadership looking to kill the Backdoor Roth today are the same ones who codified it into law when they held power in 2010.

Gorgeous fall colors.

A stop back in time.