Could an Empty Garage Solve Housing Crisis?

That empty garage being used for storage may be the answer to a housing shortage that is ailing markets across the country, housing analysts say. Several communities nationwide are considering lifting zoning requirements to allow more accessory dwelling units or ADUs, which would permit adding extra housing onto an existing home.

California, facing an epic housing shortage, is one state actively pursuing the idea. A recent report from the California Housing Partnership says that the state needs 1.4 million more affordable rental homes to meet current population needs. California lawmakers have been relaxing their laws to allow more ADUs – whether that’s a garage conversion, backyard cottage, an in-law apartment or granny flat that could be added onto an existing home. Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law to urge greater construction of ADUs.

Companies are now stepping in to help. One project under way, called United Dwelling, enters into a partnership with a homeowner and pays for the garage conversion. Once it is converted into a living area, they’ll then manage the rental of the apartment to a tenant and split the rent with the homeowner. The company received a million-dollar grant last year from Los Angeles County to help grow its garage conversions in the area.

ADUs have been regarded not only as a way for homeowners to generate extra income but also as a place for young adults who move back home or aging parents who want to move in. ADUs could also help provide greater affordable housing to low-income populations in need, housing analysts say.

However, one common complaint regarding affordable housing has been the impact to neighboring properties, including having more people living on one property and street parking issues.

“While nonprofit housing developers prioritize multifamily developments, we support ADUs as one of many tools that can help address our housing crisis, given the staggering deficit of units across California for people of all incomes,” Alan Greenlee, executive director of the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing, told The New York Times. “Notably, ADUs can help achieve greater density of units in neighborhoods that are primarily zoned for single-family homes.”

More Gratitude = Better Life

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that to achieve contentment, one should “cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.”

Turns out Emerson – who explored the meaning of a good life in much of his work – wasn’t far off when it comes to what we now know about counting our blessings. Research continually finds that expressing thanks can lead to a healthier, happier and less-stressed lifestyle.

“Life is a series of problems that have to be solved – and a lot of times those problems cause stress,” Robert Emmons, a gratitude researcher and psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, says. “Gratitude can be that stress buster.”

The way we celebrate holidays often includes a rhetoric of adopting an attitude of gratitude – but what about after the leftovers and family china have been put away? How do we, as Emerson advised, be thankful for each thing that contributes to our lives?

We can cultivate gratitude on a regular basis.Research shows that writing down what you’re thankful for can lead to a multitude of wellness benefits. Keeping a gratitude journal can reinforce positive thoughts – something particularly helpful as the brain tends to naturally focus on what goes wrong. Putting pen to paper can also help you make more progress as you work toward personal goals.

To reap the full benefits of journaling, Emmons recommends writing for five to 10 minutes every other day. “You really need to commit to doing it, and if you write it down eventually it will become more automatic,” Emmons says. “It’s like exercise – you’re not just going to get up one morning and go running, you need to have a plan. You need to have a gratitude action plan, whether it’s waking up and writing in the morning or in the evening before you go to sleep – no one size best fits all.”

Expressing gratitude may generate more optimism, but thankful people also don’t shy away from the negative. Emmons says that while we often associate gratitude with focusing on the good and avoiding the bad, the key to leading a thankful life is embracing setbacks as part of your overall journey. Emmons suggests recalling a hard time you once experienced – chances are, you’ll start to feel grateful for your current state and overcoming former challenges.

Thankful people know they didn’t get to where they are by themselves – and they make it a habit to spend time with those people who matter most. “Gratitude really helps us connect to other people,” Emmons says. “It actually strengthens relationships and relationships are the strongest predictors of happiness and coping with stress.”

Expressing appreciation for loved ones can also help create a closeness by allowing others to see how you look at them. “More than other emotion, gratitude is the emotion of friendship,” Michael E. McCullough, a University of Miami researcher, told the New York Times in 2011. “It is part of a psychological system that causes people to raise their estimates of how much value they hold in the eyes of another person.”

Stating how much you appreciate your loved ones pays off. A recent study published in the journal Personal Relationships found that couples who expressed gratitude in their relationship had better marriages. Higher levels of thankfulness in the relationship also seemed to reduce men and women’s likelihood of divorce.

In our plugged-in culture, it’s impossible to avoid social media altogether. However, Emmons says, thankful people mindfully take advantage of these networks. ”Thankful people] use whatever cues that exist in everyday environments to trigger grateful thoughts,” he says. “Pictures and information on social media – that’s a very good way to do it.”

Research has found that positive thoughts shared on social media spread faster than than negative – something that makes the gratitude process a lot easier when turning to the Internet. Emmons suggests assembling an archive of postings on Facebook and Instagram to pull from when you need a reminder to be grateful. This method will help you cue happy memories through pages that you normally visit on a daily basis. “Technology and devices are criticized because you’re less connected, but if used correctly I think it can be the opposite,” Emmons said.

Know the value of the little things.There’s power in the small, ordinary moments, like catching the subway before the doors close or your pet greeting your happily when you get home. Look for things to add to your gratitude list, then help others appreciate them, too.

Small acts of kindness make a difference in a big way when it comes to cultivating gratitude. Thankful people make it a habit to acknowledge and pay forward each bit of kindness that comes their way, whether it’s a simple compliment, help on a task or getting flowers “just because.” Research shows this type of kindness makes both you and the other person happier.

Everyone needs a little help sometimes – and grateful people know there’s no better way to acknowledge this than by actively doing something about it. In his book Thanks!, Emmons notes that those who volunteer often feel grateful for the experience to give back. “Since service to others helped them to find their own inner spirituality, they were grateful for the opportunity to serve,” he wrote.

As research published in BMC Public Health points out, volunteering can result in lower feelings of depression and increased overall well-being. Emmons suggests examining your own talents and using them to help others, noting that people become more grateful as givers rather than receivers.

They may not seem similar, but gratitude and fitness can go hand-in-hand. According to Emmons’s 2003 study, people who practiced gratitude also engaged in more exercise. The results also found that study participants had fewer dietary restrictions and were less likely to smoke or abuse alcohol.

Exercising has been proven to clear your mind and reduce stress, all key components in setting yourself up for gratitude. Thankful people who move their feet experience an overall healthier mind and body, therefore making gratitude one of the best medicines, Emmons says.

Grateful people know that their thankful attitude can also fuel self-compassion. A study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences found that higher levels of gratitude were associated with greater self-esteem. And it’s no wonder: When your well-being is a priority, you can’t help but feel great.

Thankful for being the person that you are should be at the top of your gratitude list.

Family, Our Rock

Every family, it seems, has its black sheep. There’s the grouch, the boozer, the nay-sayer, the doper, the miser, the “me, me, me” and the just downright disagreeable.

But when you come down to it, they are with us in good times and in bad. They are our advocates, our defenders, our supporters when we’re up against the wall. They are family.

Mary Karr reminds us that “A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it.” While it’s easy to agree with such cynicism, there are a multitude of reasons not to.

Country Living rounded up a plethora of quotes about family that remind us that family is, indeed, our rock.
“The memories we make with our family is everything,” said actress Candace Cameron Bure. Philanthropist Peter Buffett says “It didn’t matter how big our house was; it mattered that there was love in it.” Both of those quotes would be great to read to anyone in your family – especially on Thanksgiving Day.

Here are many more thoughts about family to ponder and cherish.

Lisa Weed — “Being a family means you are a part of something very wonderful. It means you will love and be loved for the rest of your life.”

Pope John XXIII — “The family is the first essential cell of human society.”

Wanda Hope Carter — “Family and friends are hidden treasures, seek them out and enjoy their riches.”

Marge Kennedy – The informality of family life is a blessed condition that allows us all to become our best while looking our worst.

Friedrich Nietzsche — “In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.”

Stitch, ‘Lilo and Stitch’ — “’Ohana’ means family and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”

Walt Disney — “Life is beautiful. It’s about giving. It’s about family.”

Lee Iacocca — “The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.”

Jane Howard — “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.”

‘Coco’ (2017) — “We may have our differences, but nothing’s more important than family.”

José Carreras — “I have a wonderful shelter, which is my family.”

Reba McEntire — “I don’t think quantity time is as special as quality time with your family.”

Trenton Lee Stewart — “Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.”

Kelly Clarkson — “My friends and family are my support system… Without them I have no idea where I would be.”

Barbara Bush — “At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.”

Louis Zamperini — “The world, we’d discovered, doesn’t love you like your family loves you.”

Marjorie Pay Hinckley — “Home is where you are loved the most and act the worst.”

Marge Kennedy — “In truth, a family is what you make it. It is made strong, not by number of heads counted at the dinner table, but by the rituals you help family members create, by the memories you share, by the commitment of time, caring, and love…”

Leonard Cohen — “May you be surrounded by friends and family, and if this is not your lot, may the blessings find you in your solitude.”

Candace Cameron Bure — “The memories we make with our family is everything.”

Burmese Proverb — “In time of test, family is best.”

Michael Imperioli — “My family is my life, and everything else comes second as far as what’s important to me.”

Albert Einstein — “Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life.”

Peter Buffett — “It didn’t matter how big our house was; it mattered that there was love in it.”

Guy Lafleur — “When trouble comes, it’s your family that supports you.”

Maya Angelou — “I sustain myself with the love of family.”

Jodi Picoult — “My mother used to tell me that when push comes to shove, you always know who to turn to. That being a family isn’t a social construct but an instinct.”

Mother Teresa — “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”

Elizabeth Berg — “You are born into your family and your family is born into you. No returns. No exchanges.”

Haniel Long — “So much of what is best in us is bound up in our love of family, that it remains the measure of our stability because it measures our sense of loyalty.”

Winston S. Churchill — “There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human, are created, strengthened, and maintained.”

Paul Pearsall — “Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family.”

Barbara Bush — “When all the dust is settled and all the crowds are gone, the things that matter are faith, family, and friends.”

Anthony Liccione — “Everyone needs a house to live in, but a supportive family is what builds a home.”

Mario Puzo — “The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other.”

Richard Bach — “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.”

J.K. Rowling — “Family is a life jacket in the stormy sea of life.”

George Bernard Shaw — “Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.”

Barbara Bush — “To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.”

Alex Haley — “The family is link to our past, bridge to our future.”

Michael J. Fox — “Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.”

Brad Henry — “Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.”

Les Dawson — “Families are like fudge – mostly sweet with a few nuts.”

Desmond Tutu — “You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.”

Rod Stewart — “You go through life wondering what is it all about but at the end of the day it’s all about family.”

George Santayana — “The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.”

Anthony Brandt — “Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.”

George Bernard Shaw — “A happy family is but an earlier heaven.”

John Wooden — “The most important thing in the world is family and love.”

Happy holidays to you and your family!

Big Three Shopping Days

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States, has been regarded as the beginning of America’s Christmas shopping season since 1952, although the term “Black Friday” didn’t become widely used until more recent decades.

It’s twin, Cyber Monday, refers to the Monday following the Thanksgiving Holiday. Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation and Scott Silverman coined the term which made its debut on Nov. 28, 2005, in a Shop.org press release. Cyber Monday was intended to boost online shopping.

First observed in the United States on Nov. 27, 2010, Small Business Saturday is a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which feature big box retail and e-commerce stores respectively. Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick and mortar businesses that are small and local. Small Business Saturday is a registered trademark of American Express.

The earliest known use of “Black Friday” to refer to the day after Thanksgiving occurs in the journal, Factory Management and Maintenance, for November 1951, and again in 1952. Here it referred to the practice of workers calling in sick on the day after Thanksgiving, in order to have a four-day weekend. However, this use does not appear to have caught on. Around the same time, the terms “Black Friday” and “Black Saturday” came to be used by the police in Philadelphia and Rochester to describe the crowds and traffic congestion accompanying the start of the Christmas shopping season.

Many stores offer highly promoted sales on Black Friday and open very early, such as at midnight, or may even start their sales at some time on Thanksgiving. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but California and some other states observe “The Day After Thanksgiving” as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday, such as Columbus Day. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the following Friday off, which, along with the following regular weekend, makes it a four-day weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers.

Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States since 2005. Inaccurate reports often have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time. Similar stories resurface year.

In 2014, spending volume on Black Friday fell for the first time since the 2008 recession. Data shows $50.9 billion was spent during that 4-day Black Friday weekend, down 11% from the previous year. However, the U.S. economy was not in a recession. Christmas creep has been cited as a factor in the diminishing importance of Black Friday, as many retailers now spread out their promotions over the entire months of November and December rather than concentrate them on a single shopping day or weekend. This year there have been many so-called”black Friday” promotions following Halloween.

In the early 1980s, as the phrase became more widespread, a popular explanation became that this day represented the point in the year when retailers begin to turn a profit, thus going from being “in the red” to being “in the black”.

For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6 a.m. on Black Friday, but in the late 2000s many had crept to 5 or 4. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened at midnight for the first time. In 2012, Walmart and several other retailers announced that they would open most of their stores at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, prompting calls for a walkout among some workers. In 2014, stores such as JCPenney, Best Buy, and Radio Shack opened at 5 PM on Thanksgiving Day while stores such as Target, Walmart, Belk, and Sears opened at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day. Three states, Rhode Island, Maine and Massachusetts prohibit large supermarkets, big box stores, and department stores from opening on Thanksgiving, due to what critics refer to as blue laws. The Massachusetts ban on forcing employees to work on major holidays is not a religion-driven “blue law” but part of the state’s Common Day of Rest Law.

According to the Shop.org/Bizrate Research 2005 eHoliday Mood Study, “77 percent of online retailers said that their sales increased substantially on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a trend that is driving serious online discounts and promotions on Cyber Monday this year (2005)”.

In 2017, Cyber Monday online sales grew to a record $6.59 billion, compared with $2.98 billion in 2015, and $2.65 billion in 2014. However, the average order value was $128, down slightly from 2014’s $160.

Cyber Monday has become the online equivalent to Black Friday and offers a way for smaller retail websites to compete with larger chains. Since its inception, it has become an international marketing term used by online retailers across the world.

Retailers Expect Strong Holiday Spending

The holiday spending season is expected to be a lively one this year, and brick-and-stick stores remain a critical component to the shopping season.

ICSC, a retail real estate researcher, forecasts a 4.9% increase in holiday spending over last year, reaching an $832.3 billion total. The average adult is expected to spend $683 on holiday-related items.

Ninety percent of adults say they plan to shop in retail locations for gifts and related goods, according to ICSC, which surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. consumers. Eighty-two percent expect to make an additional purchase in store while picking up their online purchase.

“Our annual Holiday Shopping Intentions Survey once again shows that consumers are not only optimistic about the upcoming holiday season, but also continue to favor physical stores when shopping for gifts,” says Tom McGee, president and CEO of ICSC. “Consumers expect convenience and experience when shopping, which means that those retailers with a good omnichannel strategy will likely see success this holiday season.”

Promotions are key to driving more in-store visits, the survey found. More than 60% of shoppers say that searching for deals is what drives them to take more trips to stores. The most popular purchases: gift cards (63%); apparel, footwear and accessories (55%); toys and games (48%); and food and alcohol (43%).

Eighty-seven percent of shoppers say they plan to research online before going into a physical store. Eighty-two percent of respondents say they’ll use their smartphone in store to compare prices, check inventory and access digital coupons.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a celebrated annually on October 31. The holiday tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes.

When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church made November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It’s widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, church-sanctioned holiday.

All Souls’ Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints’ Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

The celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing.

Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the 19th century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country. In the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing the Irish Potato Famine, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally.

Borrowing from European traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes.

Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide Halloween parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague some celebrations in many communities during this time.

By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated.

Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats.

Thus, a new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday after Christmas.

Speaking of commercial success, scary Halloween movies have a long history of being box office hits. Classic Halloween movies include the “Halloween” franchise, based on the 1978 original film directed by John Carpenter and starring Donald Pleasance, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Tony Moran. In “Halloween,” a young boy named Michael Myers murders his 17-year-old sister and is committed to jail, only to escape as a teen on Halloween night and seek out his old home, and a new target.

Considered a classic horror film down to its spooky soundtrack, it inspired 11 other films in the franchise and other “slasher films” like “Scream,” “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13.” More family-friendly Halloween movies include “Hocus Pocus,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Beetlejuice” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”

The American Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling,” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry.

On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.

On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.

Today’s Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into black cats.

We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred. it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today’s trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday – with luck, by next Halloween – be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it.

In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl’s future husband. In some versions of this legend, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.

Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces.

Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry. At others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle. Of course, whether we’re asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the goodwill of the very same “spirits” whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly.

‘Ghost Kitchens’ Ahead

No, we’re not talking about cooking something up for Halloween. And we’re not referring to a seance to be held around grandma’s kitchen table. This about the future of fast foods.

Wendy’s recently became the latest fast-food chain to mention delivery-centric locations without dining rooms or takeout, commonly called ghost kitchens or dark kitchens.

Abigail Pringle, Wendy’s chief development officer, said dark kitchens will be a significant part of the chain’s expansion strategy. Pringle said the chain planned to open two dark kitchens in the U.S. by the end of the year, having already utilized the design internationally.

Wendy’s plans to use dark kitchens in high-delivery areas, as well as in regions where the chain has not yet opened locations due to high real estate costs or other restraints. Wendy’s isn’t alone in turning to ghost kitchens to boost delivery sales without making massive investments.

Chains including The Halal Guys, Sweetgreen, and Chick-fil-A have partnered with leading ghost-kitchen brand Kitchen United to offer delivery out of a shared commercial kitchen. Kitchen United plans to enter the New York City market as part of its relationship with RXR Realty. The company has 13 more locations in the pipeline, with plans to have eight kitchens open by the end of the year. It aims to ultimately open 400 locations over the next four years.

The ghost kitchen craze is being driven by the explosion of delivery options in fast food. UberEats, Postmates, GrubHub and other third-party delivery companies are partnering with chains, many of which are offering delivery for the first time. Food delivery is set to become a $75.9 billion business by 2022, according to a 2018 Cowen & Co. report. That’s more than triple the $23.2 billion in delivery sales that were done in 2011.

As delivery becomes a larger portion of chains’ sales, delivery-centric locations are likely to make up a greater number of fast-food shops around the US. The concept of what a fast-food location looks like is fundamentally transforming – and ghost kitchens are set to play a major role.

Despite Shoplifting, Stores Love Self-Checkout

With self-checkout machines suddenly everywhere you may be wondering…don’t shoppers just steal stuff?

Yes, they do. But, retail industry experts say that for many stores the machines are worth the hassle. Indeed, shops ranging from superstores like Target and Walmart to convenience chain CVS to local mom-and-pop groceries have all been adding machines. One recent study suggested globally, self-checkout could continue to grow 10% a year for the next five years.

So what gives? While shoppers may love or hate self-checkout, for stores it often comes down to one thing: Machines mean fewer cashiers, and that can translate to big savings, even if it encourages some shoppers to take the sticky fingers discount.

Shoplifting, or “shrinkage,” as the retail industry calls it, has long bedeviled store owners. Checkout machines are making it worse. Theft accounts for nearly 4% of inventory for retailers with self-checkout, compared to just 1.5% for traditional checkout, according to a report from the U.K.’s University of Leicester.
What’s more, in a recent review of shoplifting offenders, 72% said that self-checkout made theft easy to very easy; only 8% answered it made shoplifting more difficult, according to the Loss Prevention Council, a trade association.

In some instances, retailers are finding higher sales in addition to higher loses with self-checkout, says Read Hayes, a criminologist at the University of Florida and head of the Loss Prevention Council. Still, most are willing to take the chance of greater losses. By switching to self-checkout, “the convenience and cost to sell is much lower,” says Hayes.

A self-checkout setup with four machines costs $125,000 versus just $1,500 for four traditional registers, according to estimates from M.I.T. But with only one person needed to man the self-checkout aisle compared to four at the registers, the cost savings can quickly add up, say experts.

Sales clerks earn $11.70 an hour on average, or just over $24,000 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So, while a typical self-checkout set-up costs store owners about $149,000 in the first year – it costs only about $24,000 a year after that, compared to $96,000 year-in, year-out for a more traditional arrangement.

“When companies are using (self-checkouts) to eliminate jobs, they feel more justified,” says Christopher Andrews, assistant professor of sociology at Drew University who studies self-service checkout.
To be sure, not every retailer is on the bandwagon. A few, like grocery PCC Community Markets in Washington state have installed machines only to yank them. “A kiosk doesn’t create community or connections,” marketing vice president Heather Snavely said.

It’s worth noting that some stores and retail industry advocates claim self-checkout doesn’t necessarily mean cashier jobs are eliminated, since employees can be re-assigned to help shoppers in store aisles.
Of course, ultimately most retailers will want it both ways – as few cashiers and as little shrinkage as possible.

Ready, Set, Shop

It’s time to think about holiday shopping. You don’t get caught at the last minute, unable to find that must-have toy on your child’s wish list. To help you get going, here are some highlights from Walmart’s list of the hottest toys of 2019 and some other items that seem headed to the top of the wish lists..

Walmart’s Top Rated by Kids toy list this year includes 48 toys, more than in previous years, and a new featured trend: gaming!

Famous Friends: Inspired by the make-believe adventures of their favorite famous characters, kids are bringing their furry friends, heroes and role models into playtime. Toys based on this year’s hottest cinema and TV shows are inspiring kids to reenact the action from the big and small screens and create their own adventures.

Here are a few of the toys chosen in this trend:
6V Plush Simba
Harry Potter Invisibility Cloak
Paw Patrol Mighty Pups Super Paws Lookout Tower

Unboxing Toys: The thrill of surprise toys continues to excite kids. Adding an extra layer of fun, this year’s unboxing toys are more than just collecting the most sought-after items – they inspire kids to find new ways to play with their toys and create unique adventures based on their interests. This trend includes toys like:
LOL Surprise 2-N-1 Glamper
Tic Tac Toy XOXO Friends Multipack
What’s In My Purse – Doll Purse

Interactive Toys: Kids love toys that respond while playing. From toys that talk, hug, dance and change color, these toys engage the imagination and creativity of kids as they express their personalities through play. This year’s interactive toys include the following show-stoppers:
Build A Bear Workshop Stuffing Station Value Box
Juno The Baby Elephant
NASCAR Adventure Force Crash Racers

Outdoor Fun: The desire to play in the great outdoors is big for kids this year, and they are looking to roll up to their playdates in style. Whether they’re driving, sliding, scooting or hovering, kids are finding new ways to get around and play outside. Here are a few of the outdoor toys for this year:
24V Real Tree UTV
Hover-1 Hoverboard and Kart Combo
Hover-1 Transport Scooter

Aspirational Play: Whether preparing to take flight, go glamping, own a pet or cook a gourmet meal, there are no limits to creativity and no boundaries on what kids can be when playing NASCAR Adventure Force Crash Racersys. These are just a few of the toys inspiring kids this holiday season:
Barbie Dreamplane
Kindi Kids Doll
Scruff-A-Luv My Real Rescue

Gaming: Kids who are looking to get in on the action want consoles and accessories to guarantee a superior gaming experience. The toys that will help kids step up their game include:
Cynosa Chroma Keyboard
HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop
Kraken Grn 2019

The Walmart list is just a warm-up. Here are some additional top rated toys:

Blume Dolls. If the people at Good Housekeeping know anything about on-trend toys for the holidays – and they do – — then you can bet kids will be asking for Blume dolls this year. Just add a few drops of water to the colorful flower pot and watch a doll with fabulous hair bloom from the “soil.” Each figure comes with a surprise sidekick, too.

Kindi Kids. These doe-eyed dolls hit stores in August, just in time for kindergarten to begin. In the Kindi Kid world, every day is a new opportunity to learn, play and make new friends. Dinatina, Jessicake, Marsha Mello and Peppa-Mint each come with two unique “snack time” treats that your youngster can use to interact with the toy.

L.O.L. Surprise 2-in-1 Glamper. L.O.L. Surprise more or less invented the “unboxing” gift in 2016 and their trinket-stuffed suitcases, collectible figures and ephemera have been at the top of holiday must-have lists every year since. This turquoise traveler lets your youngster’s L.O.L. Surprise O.M.G. fashion doll hit the road in style. Like every one of their toys, this one comes with 55 toys to unbox, including a doll that’s unique to this set.

Adventure Force NASCAR Crash Racers Track. Racing cars and tracks have been entertaining kids (and adults) for decades. Give your NASCAR racers a quick charge, then let them loose on the figure-eight track to zip around, narrowly avoiding each other in the Crash Zone. But if disaster strikes, no worries. The racers are designed to break apart and be reassembled in seconds to keep the racing excitement going.

Ryan’s World Toys Surprise Mystery Giant Egg. You may not know who Ryan is, but your kids probably do if they watch YouTube or Nick Jr. And if they love watching him, you can bet one of these will end up on the 2019 holiday wish list. Past versions of these plastic eggs have contained collectible action figures, play slime and putty, and a spaceship with blinking lights and sound effects. There’s currently a backlog of up to 90 days for Series 3 eggs, the latest in this line of mystery toys, so don’t wait too long to order.

Disney ‘The Lion King’ Mighty Roar Simba Interactive Plush Toy. You can bet this blockbuster will be spawning a whole pride of merchandise. This interactive Simba plush is packed with 100 different actions from nose to tail. Stroke his back and hear him purr, roar at him and listen to him roar back. Simba has more than 100 different responses and actions in his memory banks, including that memorable catchphrase of his: “Slimy, yet satisfying.”

Disney ‘The Lion King’ 6V Plush Ride-On Toy. Toddlers up to 45 pounds can hop on Simba and cruise around the house, king or queen of all they see. Simba comes programmed with a number of sounds that your youngster can trigger as they prowl, as well as a charger to keep the battery going, and best of all it comes fully assembled!

Dreamworks Dragons Hatching Toothless Interactive Baby Dragon. If your youngster is a fan of the “How to Train Your Dragon” movie series and they went crazy over last year’s Hatchimals craze at holiday time, then add this to your shopping list this year. Kids can “hatch” and raise their very own Toothless the Dragon.

WowWee Fingerlings Light Up Narwhal. The Fingerlings family of pint-sized robotic toys continues to sprout new branches of the family tree, including this family of four pastel-colored whales. Nelly, Nikki, Nori and Rachel respond to sounds and touches by waving their tails, blinking their big eyes and lighting up their horns to reflect their mood.

Sphero Specdrums Rings. Sphero is a pioneer in the world of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) toys for older kids, and they continue to devise cool new ways to learn while having fun. Tap into your inner musician with these rings, which react to different colors by creating beats, loops and other instrument emulators. Use the app to transform those fragments into tunes you can play on your smartphone, or use any Bluetooth MIDI-based mixing equipment like Garage Band to create a mini-masterpiece.

Barbie 2019 Holiday Doll. Barbie may be eligible for the senior discount at Denny’s, but as far as holiday gifts go, she is timeless. This limited-edition doll comes decked out in a festive peppermint-twist gown that would look at home at any chic Christmas soiree this season, and she’s available in one of three styles.

Owleez. Owleez wowed the crowd at the annual New York Toy Fair in February and has had toy nerds salivating ever since. This interactive avian teaches kids how to nurture a baby owl, which you must feed, rock to sleep and even teach to fly. The payoff? When Owleez is ready, he’s programmed to leave the nest and hover in the air.

Suburbs See Rise of ‘Hipsturbia’

“Hipsturbia” is one of the emerging trends in real estate, according to a report by the Urban Land Institute. The term refers to the trend of suburbs that are creating their own versions of downtowns featuring vibrant “live/work/play” districts. More suburbs are taking a chance on these mixed-use, walkable developments, researchers note in the “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” report.

“Many of these ‘cool’ suburbs are associated with metro areas having vibrant downtowns, illustrating the falsity of a dichotomy that pits central cities against ring communities,” the researchers note.

In Omaha, it’s not the suburbs, but neighborhood districts that are seeing the trend – NoDo, Benson, the Blackstone district, the Old Market and Aksarben Village are examples. Another such area is just being built just west of Boys Town.

The communities around Silicon Valley between San Francisco and San Jose are evolving into hipsturbia centers. The report calls out Santa Clara, Calif., that is developing 240 acres with offices, hotels, serviced apartments and residences, along with open space for recreation. “The presence of Stanford University is a massive contributor to a hipsturbia environment,” researchers note. “A constant supply of young adults is the lifeblood of hipsturbias.”

The trend can also be seen playing out in Tempe, Ariz., near Arizona State University. Its transit access and cluster of coffee shops, sit-down restaurants, brewpubs, retail and entertainment are reinventing the area. Other areas, like Evanston, Ill. – just outside of Chicago and home to Northwestern University – as well as Atlanta suburbs of Decatur and Alpharetta, are also vying to become a “cool suburb,” researchers note.

“As more and more suburbs – not all, but those with the right recipe – attract a critical mass of ‘hip’ residents, their success will become increasingly visible,” researchers note. “This will multiple the number of imitators, keeping the trend going.” The live/work/play model could revive suburbs and make them an attractive place for millennials and younger adults to settle down, researchers say.