Stephen Caine works at being retired, mostly. Not an easy job, but he’s handling it well, working as the Board Chair at Hillel at the University of Arizona. He also does some travel agency work, working with his wife Heather setting up cruises through www.cruiseholidays.com.

We did discuss Steve’s prior careers, first as a printer and, then, as a financial advisor. Not a totally typical career change, but Steve’s a guy from the 60s who didn’t want to stay in any one place for two long. We talked printing briefly. Steve saw the problems pretty early, selling out by the late 1980s. (There are printers who are very successful, still, but paper as a delivery platform has some serious

For a while, on and off, I have been promising more on inequality. (I make a fair number of promises and I need to work on that, for I’m not living up to too many of them.) It’s here, it’s about 3-4 times as long as a usual MarkRubinWrites post, it’s depressing, and I think it’s important.

One more thing, and this is really for those who worry about me. Yes, those people do exist, and they know who they are! This post goes somewhere, along with future posts, but none of this is about “soaking the rich” or higher taxes, or a redistribution of income. More taxes may be part of something, but moving money around, alone, goes nowhere.

Well, I guess I’ve got a bit more to share from THE TRIP! I realized after my last post that I failed to include photos. Yes, I shared food pics, but we—Cate and I—did take other pictures. Before I share my pics, here is a link to Cate Rubin Art at Fine Art America. Photos 42-50 on page 2 are from our trip, all of the photos are for sale (in many formats/sizes), and she’s got lots more talent than I’ll ever have.

Now, I have many pictures, but in going through them I note the fact that many are familiar sites, and my takes are not especially … well, not especially special. So, while we saw and photographed

Eclectic. “ec·lec·tic, deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad range of sources,” per “the Internet.” Now, with 133 published posts—this is No. 134—the notion of “eclectic” had probably passed through at least one reader’s mind. I’ve always thought of myself as an eclectic thinker—open to ideas from all sources—and someone with an eclectic mind. Candidly, or, in modern parlance, tbt, I think my mind is in a calcification stage. Really. I’m less supple, and less willing to tolerate that which is not what I expect/want/like. Working on it every day, and worrying about it even more frequently. If anyone else has been experiencing this phenomenon, please share, either privately at markdrubin@gmail.com or by commenting on this post.

Most exciting thing WE did?  On Thursday, May 22, Cate and I attended the 2014 National Heritage Lecture, co-sponsored by the Supreme Court Historical Society, the White House Historical Association, and the United States Capitol Association, in the Supreme Court courtroom. The speaker was James Swanson, who spoke about the Kennedy assassination and the role of Chief Justice Earl Warren and the Warren Commission in the aftermath. Chief Justice John Roberts introduced Mr. Swanson and, then, dashed off to his daughter’s eighth-grade play. We stayed! Interesting and informative lecture, especially so for someone—Cate—for whom the Kennedy assassination is really history. Very nice reception in a conference room, where Cate was quite taken with the fancy apps, especially some passed

Gary Freed is a retired CPA from the Phoenix area, an old friend, and the man who stood beside me when Ms. J and I did the “until death do us part” thing almost 27 years ago. He’s a proud grandfather, my only retired peer, and my first guest blogger. Thanks, old friend!

In a Mark Rubin Writes blog entry he congratulated the many graduates of college this year, which got me to thinking. Besides the obvious socialization and technical education received, what class or classes did I attend in college from which I took away something that served me well in my life? This concept was particularly of interest in light of my perusal (the original meaning of

Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher is back. He wrote an open letter to the families of the Santa Barbara shooting victims, and was quoted within the past day or so thusly:

I am sorry you lost your child. I myself have a son and a daughter and the one thing I never want to go through, is what you are going through now. But:  as harsh as this sounds—your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights.

This person, Joe Wurzelbacher, became famous in 2008 when he approached Senator John McCain during the Presidential campaign to complain that he would not be able to purchase a plumbing business if Senator Barack Obama won the election, or something like that. Senator McCain

Just back from a great, great trip to Washington and New York with Cate Rubin. Family trips are terrific, but we know our children in a different way, one on one! Nothing like DC and NYC as canvasses for daughter-daddy time. I’ll be reporting in shortly, but am just back and “my body’s achin’ and my time is at hand … .” I’m not certain, but I believe we hit 125,000 total steps during our non-flying days. DC and New York are walking cities, and we’re both compulsive about taking advantage of the opportunities both cities presented. Stay tuned, with lots of pics and details coming.

The politicians are on a rant about the Veterans Administration. There’s certainly plenty to be concerned with, although those who are hollering the loudest are the same crew that limit funding for veterans and most everything else. That aside, while politicians do what they do, real people are making a difference. Here’s a piece by my friend Melissa Vito, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, and Vice Provost for Academic Initiative and Student Success at the University of Arizona:  After Vets Have Served, UA Reaches Out to Serve Them. Dr. Vito’s title says much about the U of A’s commitment to students, and the column reveals serious efforts to respect the service of veterans. If

The Friday Curmudgeon is a new feature that may or may not last. I’ve got some “in the life” issues, and for reasons unknown Andy Rooney passed through my head while I was thinking about one of them. Mr. Rooney worked for 60 Minutes at CBS from 1978 until he died in 2011. He ranted on and on about this and that for many years. People listened. I’m sure many people thought he was (more than) a bit of a nut, but ranting was his job, and he performed.

In fact, Mr. Rooney earned his right to rant. He was a war correspondent during World War II, and went to work for CBS in 1949. I, on the other hand,