This is TL;DR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) Tuesdays, where I summarize two interesting articles from the InterWebs.  Slightly different than roundups on other blogs, I’ll tell you what you need to know about the article and discuss its significance.  For the first time, I’ve also provided links to articles from 2 blogs that have been featured here before that you should read on your own — scroll past the summaries to see them.

This concept is inspired by my father, who sends everyone in the family articles links by email, by my older brother, who sends articles so long I never read them, and my wife, who became tired of me sending her articles, and has been telling me “TL;DR” for years.

The first article will be from other bloggers, to highlight the writings of interesting people you otherwise may not discover.  I’ll also provide a link to another article of theirs, because I want you to visit their site to find the rest of their great content.

The second summary will be from “traditional” news outlets.  I read news voraciously — I have online subscriptions to 3 major newspapers (conservative and liberal — WSJ, NYTimes, WaPo) and most non-news junkies will not regularly read all three.  I’ll also sneak in articles from other “traditional” news outlets.

I write these 1-4x/month. Click here to read all of them over time.

2 Things For You To Read:

#1: Waffles on Wednesday delves into whether they should have a side hustle: To Side Hustle or Not To Side Hustle… Or Maybe to Beside Hustle? — bonus points for use of the word “Chautauqua” — my favorite word in the world

#2: My Sons Father is having a health scare: High Risk of a Heart Attack

2 Things I Read For You

#1

Source:99to1percent

Title: Our Biggest Money Fight and 9 Lessons Learned

Summary: A hypothetical discussion about how to divvy up hypothetical lotto winnings leads to a huge fight between Mr. and Mrs. 99to1percent, as they cannot agree on how much should go to each side of the family (his vs. hers).  They went through an awkward dinner reservation (not talking) before eventually making up, and they learned many lessons, such as: it was dumb to get pissed off about a hypothetical, they didn’t storm out on each other, they both apologized, they won’t have the same fight again, and they vowed to view the whole family as “ours” instead of “his” or hers.”

Conclusion: Full disclosure — the day I wrote this I bought a Powerball ticket and told my wife after I bought it she could plan for early retirement.  By the time this post is published, I could have won $500 million dollars and be on a beach somewhere (Update: I’m not on a beach).  One of my first posts was about finances and marriage, but about how we manage our real money, not hypothetical money.  I fully admit the folly of falling into some of the traps this couple describes, such as arguing about the same topic over and over.  After 11 years, I did learn my lesson right before the holidays — I gave up thermostat control for awhile.  In all seriousness, they make excellent points.  Merging families is difficult — my wife’s family and my family come from completely different religious and cultural backgrounds, as well as different parts of the world — it’s not a natural combination.  You know what is the great uniter?  Grandkids.  Rogue One, Two, and Three are a common bond, shared by everyone.  It seems when kids are involved, people come together.

Read This Also:How we live on 15% of our income

#2

Source: The Washington Post

Title: The show was supposed to bring black and white students together. It almost tore them apart.

Summary: A fascinating tale.  At the University of Tennessee Chatanooga, many years ago fraternities/sororities that were/are primarily for black students had a tradition of performing step routines.  In the 90’s they began collaborating with predominantly white fraternities/sororities, teaching them how to perform, and putting on a show that eventually could fill a large arena.  Over time, the black organizations become put off, as the white ones appropriated steps and inferred negative cultural stereotypes.  So this year, without telling anyone, the black organizations held their own show off campus.  The white organizations carried on, performing in front of the regular crowd.  The head of the school was caught off guard and is scrambling to reunify the campus.

Conclusion: While there have been numerous stories of racial divisiveness over the past year, this one seems the most unique, become it seems relatively unrelated to the political climate.  This was a storm that was brewing, and maybe the election tipped it over the edge, but it isn’t the reason underlying the problem.  The term “cultural appropriation” is thrown around a lot nowadays, sometimes in well-intentioned and appropriate ways, and sometimes in extreme ways that are hard for even me to take seriously (such as uproars over kids wearing certain Halloween costumes).  It sounds like in this case there was no ill will, just a lack of understanding and a progressive decline in a long-standing relationship.  So while the story focuses on racial divide, in some ways it’s really just a story about two different groups of people that grew apart and didn’t know how to reconcile.  Those things happen all the time — that’s life.

Share your thoughts in the comment section below.  If you find value in these TL;DR posts, please let me know — comment, share, email me, or otherwise let me know you want to see more of them!