I went to the San Francisco SOMA Gold’s Gym this morning for my normal workout, but it wasn’t there. The family that owns the local Gold’s franchise kept their 2010 promise to move their 4 gyms away from Gold’s when their contractual obligations ended. Instead of the yellow and black Gold’s logo, I was greeted by a new look for the new gym, Fitness SF. The staff, equipment, and services are all the same. But, now the workout center is free from the stigma of the prejudices of Robert Rowling, who as CEO of the national Gold’s holding company gave [...]

Our family cruises. We're almost to the perk level of getting free laundry on Princess Cruises, and we've persuaded nervous friends that they won't get seasick or stranded at sea when they book on one of today's cruise lines. But, the chronic lying, chaos, and blame passing by the brass associated with Carnival Corporation's wrecked Costa Concordia makes even us dedicated cruisers question the overall safety of our vacations.  Carnival quickly threw the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, under the bus saying that the disaster was caused by "significant human error".  Schettino deserves the bus's tread marks. He has endlessly compounded his [...]

This week’s media frenzy is a super-sized, minute-by-minute coverage of the failure of the Congressional Super Committee to reach an agreement on cutting $1.2 Trillion from the budget deficit. We’re going to see lead stories detailing the up-to-the-second state of failed negotiations. And, every news outlet will have a juicy feature story with someone’s opinion about the disaster that the failure of the Super Committee will trigger or a local color angle.We’ll see haggard members of Congress coming out of midnight meetings. They’ll be an angry President bemoaning the lack of political cooperation. And, they’ll be heart-wrenching pictures of injured [...]