WW

One of the small mysteries of my life is how my articles come into being. Sometimes I’m asked a question that seems like it might be of wider interest. Sometimes I read a book which I think others might find interesting. Sometimes a title forms itself in my mind and the article just follows.

As I write this in mid-April, Spring’s arrival seems to be on indefinite hold. So, with apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson who wrote that this might be a good time to think of love, my current thoughts are on something a bit less romantic: taxes.

Since my beard has long been completely white there’s not much I can do to disguise my age. That being the case, there’s probably little further embarrassment in letting you know that I watched both Andy Rooney and Gilda Radner’s character “Emily Litella” on live television. What did these two have in common?

Sam Cooke spoke for many high school students of the 1960's when he sang the words of today's title as part of his hit song Wonderful World. In college, however, we learned about philosopher George Santayana and his much earlier book Reason in Common Sense. In it, he wrote: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

I’m turning to the Bard for the title of 2014’s first message because there are articles everywhere right now offering forecasts for the upcoming year. I never try that myself because I know I can’t predict the future. Instead, I thought I’d reflect a bit on the past to see what lessons we might learn.

The best way to legally hasten someone’s death is to arrange for the services of a personal physician.

I think most college students will agree that going off to school may involve some fun but it’s basically going to be their job for several years. That said, borrowing today’s title from the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs seems appropriate since that’s the song the dwarfs sing as they head out to work at the mine.

Fortune magazine recently published an excerpt from a new Bernie Madoff book.

The 1976 movie “Network” featured Peter Finch in the role of Howard Beale, a TV news anchor whose show is beset by declining viewership. Howard eventually comes back to win the ratings contest by, among other things, encouraging his listeners to stick their heads out their windows and shout: “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Better known in English as Leo Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace is widely considered to have been one of the world’s greatest writers but his potential aptitude for financial planning may be somewhat less well known.