The Dawn of a New Era

Dunkin Donuts has started selling its coffee grounds in bulk at BJs, Costco and the like. This big 40 oz bag costs a mere $15. Still no bargain, but it'll keep me in caffeine longer than the regular one pound bag. Keep up the good work guys.

Are you a Dunkin Donuts drinker, or a Starbucks snob?

Trend Alert, Part III

Summer camp for rich kids, with a twist: these camps teach the campers how to handle their inheritances. Yet another crutch for wealthy parents who shirk their duties. Here's a thought: teach your children the value of money the old fashioned way, and make them get a job. Case and point: Ivanka Trump. Good parenting can trump the trappings of wealth. (No pun intended.)

Campers are asked questions like, what would you do if you won $10 million? To which one camper responded with the money quote:

"If that's pretax, $10 million isn't that much."

Ha! Spoken like a true trust fund brat. The article goes on to conclude that:

...these kids wouldn't be tomorrow's chief executives and billionaire entrepreneurs. Most would probably drift through life spending their parents' money and hoping it would last. Tomorrow's economic superstars will more likely come from the striving middle class, just as they have for much of American history. And all that inherited wealth will wind up going to people who actually earned it -- an encouraging sign for those of us worried about the wealth gap.

I'm supposed to be encouraged that trust fund brats are so stupid they're likely to piss away their fortune? Well okay. But what about the fact that it's easy to make money when you already have money, e.g. through investing and business ventures. These kids are so dumb that they don't know how to hire advisors? But hey, if all else fails, heiresses-to-be can follow the footsteps of the mother of heiresses and release a sex tape.

Trend Alert, Part II

Add a flavor cartridge to your water filtration system. Comes in strawberry, peach and raspberry. It contains sucralose (the sweetener found in Splenda), so it's calorie-free. Hey, at least you know where it comes from and it doesn't leave behind plastic waste.

Trend Alert, Part I

The giftless birthday party is gaining popularity. That's right. Parents request that guests donate to a charity in lieu of giving a present.

I can understand why a parent would adopt this approach. Birthday parties have clearly become excessive. And beyond that, society itself is wealthy compared to when I grew up. The cars and houses are bigger; there are more toys and baby gear; there are hundreds of television channels; children are expected to own a cell phone, etc. My unsupported theory is that extreme material wealth distracts from spirituality and things that really matter. Compare todays younger generation to that of the 60s. Where's the rebellion? Does the younger generation even care about the war in Iraq? And what's happened to rock music? It's become watered down and meaningless. It's like today's younger generation is missing a soul. Perhaps, they're in a videogame-induced malaise or something.

On the other hand, birthday gifts themselves are not per se excessive. I'm personally inclined to reject the giftless birthday party for that reason. But I will look for other ways of rejecting extreme materialism and imparting spirituality and a strong sense of values onto my children.

Elmo is so five minutes ago.

Cute gives way to sophisticated designs, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.