red fortune rabbit
Dear Eric: I am one of many lonely adults struggling to make close friends. It’s never come easy for me, and it’s compounded by the fact that I’m an introvert who works from home part time with three small children, living far away from family. My husband is a great friend and support, but I’d love to have more female friends. Several years ago, when we moved to our current area, I started inviting people to barbecues, large parties, out to dinner and on vacations. I work hard to listen when people talk and remember what they share, texting them on birthdays or big days that they mention. I offer to watch children and plan play dates. While I feel friendly with a large circle of people, I’m rarely on anyone else’s invite lists and don’t get any texts on my birthdays. Am I expecting too much from friendships as an adult? Should I be happy and not lonely with what I have? I know I’m lucky to now know so many of my neighbors, but when I stop interacting with them, they forget about me. I’m exhausted with the one-sided effort. — Tired of Trying Dear Trying: I’m going to tell you something that will probably annoy you. I apologize in advance. You may be too good at socializing, to the point where the people around you assume your calendar is always full and/or don’t think you’re someone who needs the kind of friendly check-ins we all do. This is counterintuitive, of course, but people are strange. Being the consummate social butterfly in what you describe as a very social area has many benefits — you should be proud of what you’ve done — but it might be impeding deeper connections. Try to narrow your scope. Are there a few people with whom you’d like to develop a closer relationship? If so, focus on cultivating a series of meaningful interactions with them. Don’t be afraid to tell them your plan, i.e., “I’d love to be better friends. Can we get together?” I’ve found that one of the benefits of making friends as an adult is you can say what you really mean. You’re obviously quite gifted at the art of community-making, no small feat. But if you’re running the party, you don’t always get the benefit of the party. Being more strategic and focused won’t narrow your social group but could elevate some of those casual acquaintances to the level of friends. Dear Eric: I just read the letter from “Former Friend,” whose son’s classmate stays in touch long after their son had fallen out of contact. I offer some thoughts on behalf of someone who is still in touch with many of my son’s former classmates. One, they might genuinely enjoy you as a person. As they become adults, it’s a wonderful opportunity to form independent friendships. Two, some young people might see you as a parental figure that they don’t have. You might be seen as a resource for advice. Three, sometimes you’ve been the safe space in their life. Decades ago, I was a young person whose mother was deceased and whose father was abusive. I would have given anything just to have a safe adult to talk to. Dear Still Friends: I think you make a great point about the potential for the letter writer to play a needed role in a younger person’s life. If the letter writer isn’t finding value in the friendship, it’s worth figuring out what could make it meaningful. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Ray'Sean Taylor, Ring Malith lead SIU Edwardsville over Ball State 82-69
NoneWASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday took credit for building a strong economy out of the ruins of the COVID-19 pandemic — just in time for him to turn it over to President-elect Donald Trump, who is already threatening tariffs that would likely weaken it and bring back inflation. “The bottom line is, in four short years, we’ve come a long way ... from the crisis we inherited,” Biden said in a speech at the Brookings Institution think tank. “I’m not saying it was perfect, but it ends up at this moment the best economy, strongest economy in the world and, for all Americans, doing better.” The Democrat cited the jobs created under his administration, as well as clean energy and infrastructure projects begun all over the country, and said he hoped the man who both preceded him and will succeed him in the Oval Office does not undo them or follow through with his promised tariffs. “He seems determined to impose steep universal tariffs on all imported goods brought to this country, on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs rather than the American consumer,” Biden said. “Who does he thinks pays for this? I believe this approach is a major mistake.” Trump, though, appears unlikely to heed that warning. Just after midnight Tuesday, he mockingly called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the “Governor” of Canada, which he called a “State.” During Trudeau’s visit days earlier to the Republican’s South Florida country club home, Trump had reportedly told his guest that if he didn’t want tariffs imposed on Canada, his country should consider joining the U.S. as a new state. “I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. For the three years before the pandemic was declared in 2020, Trump claimed — falsely — that he had brought about the best economy in American history. In fact, it was about the same or, by some measures, not quite as strong as the one built under his predecessor Barack Obama in his second presidential term. More jobs were created in Obama’s final three years than in Trump’s first three. Obama had come into office amid a deep recession caused by 2008’s global economic crisis but, by the time he left, was overseeing an economy with moderate but steady growth, negligible inflation and low unemployment. Similarly, Biden took office just past the nadir of the pandemic, with vaccine distribution just having started but thousands of Americans still dying per day. Just over half of the more than 20 million jobs lost early in the pandemic had come back, but unemployment still stood at over 6%. Four years later, all of the lost jobs have been recovered and 7 million more created. The high inflation that struck during the recovery is back down and near prepandemic levels, and unemployment is close to historic lows. Still, voters made it clear throughout the 2024 presidential election that they preferred their memories of Trump’s economy to what they saw as Biden’s economic realities. The president’s attempts to sell “Bidenomics” in the summer of 2023 flopped, and after Vice President Kamala Harris took his spot in the White House race, the Democratic campaign largely stopped trying to sell the public on Biden’s accomplishments. Many voters felt their wages had not kept up with the rising costs of groceries and housing. Though official measurements are complicated, they broadly show that this was true in 2021 and 2022 but not true for the latter two years of Biden’s presidency. Nonetheless, Trump, once again, will be handed a strong economy as he enters office. Early in his first term, he quickly began claiming that the economy he’d been criticizing as horrendous during his campaign was instead the best the country had seen in ages. It’s unclear whether and when Trump might start claiming that the current economy, which he similarly suggested was horrible in this year’s campaign, is instead terrific, all thanks to him. But what is clear is his intent to impose tariffs on foreign goods, on an even larger scale than he did the first time around. In his initial term, Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum to help American makers of those metals, but set a wide range of tariffs on products from China, which in turn triggered retaliatory tariffs on American goods. That hurt both farmers and manufacturers, and caused business investment to fall for two straight quarters in 2019, a warning sign of an impending recession. Trump’s administration was scrambling to unwind the trade war ahead of the 2020 election when the pandemic began and sent the economy into free fall. This time, Trump is vowing tariffs against China again, as well as possibly imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada — the two largest trading partners of the U.S. — in apparent violation of the trade agreement that he himself once signed. Biden’s top economic adviser, Jared Bernstein, said implementing across-the-board tariffs would certainly reverse the positive trends in the economy and bring inflation. “How quickly does that happen? Quite quickly,” he told reporters at the White House, adding that it would be a matter of months, not quarters. “The president’s speech today is the best advice I can give to any member of the incoming president’s economic team,” Bernstein said.
PHILADELPHIA -- Saquon Barkley knew the Eagles season rushing record could be his on Sunday with the type of stellar performance that has become the standard during his first season in Philadelphia. As for the exact moment Barkley hit the milestone, he wasn't sure — until the “MVP!” chants echoed throughout the Linc after a 9-yard run in the fourth quarter . “The records are great, they put a smile on your face,” Barkley said, “but the season is far from over.” Needing 109 yards to break LeSean McCoy's record, Barkley rushed for 124 yards and pushed his season total to 1,623 in a 22-16 victory over Carolina . Barkley needed just 13 games to pass McCoy, who rushed for 1,607 yards in 2013. He also overtook Wilbert Montgomery, who had 1,512 yards in 1978. “I never wrote the goal down to break it,” Barkley said. “You're always aware of it. That's how I train. That's how I operate in the offseason. I want to be great.” Barkley also maintained his pace to break Eric Dickerson’s NFL single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards, set in 1984 with the Los Angeles Rams. “That would be extremely cool to do,” Barkley said. “If it happens, it happens, and not with the mindset of, I'm scared to go try to do it. Whatever it takes to win football games.” Barkley is averaging 124.8 yards per game. At that pace and with one more game to play than Dickerson, he would become the top single-season rusher in NFL history. He needs 483 yards yards over the final four games to top Dickerson’s 40-year-old record. He averaged 6.2 yards on 20 carries against the Panthers to help the Eagles win their ninth straight game. McCoy, who was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame this season, remains the franchise’s rushing leader with 6,792 yards. Referencing his old uniform number, McCoy congratulated Barkley on social media with “a lot of love, coming from 2-5." “Being a fan of Shady's growing up, and seeing the spectacular things he was able to do with the ball in his hand, to be able to have my name mentioned with him definitely means a lot,” Barkley said. Barkley left the New York Giants in the offseason and signed a three-year deal worth $26 million guaranteed to join the Eagles, who made him the highest-paid running back in franchise history. The 27-year-old has been worth every dollar. Barkley is among the favorites for league MVP, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen was the only player with better MVP odds entering Sunday. Barkley has a franchise-record nine 100-yard rushing games in a season. Although he was held out of the end zone Sunday, he began the day leading the league with four rushing touchdowns of 25-plus yards. Barkley, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft, topped 1,000 yards three times in his six seasons with the Giants. He finished with 1,312 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns in 2022 and rushed for 1,307 yards and 11 scores as a rookie. Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, who had been unwilling to spend on elite running backs, pounced on Barkley and the decision was celebrated as a success in Philly from the first game of the season. Barkley rushed for two scores and caught a TD pass in the opener against Green Bay. His three touchdowns were the most by an Eagles player in his debut since Terrell Owens in 2004. Barkley only soared in production and popularity from there, his highlight reel stamped by a reverse leap over the head of a Jacksonville defender last month. He's since vaulted over every running back ahead of him on the Eagles rushing list — and has a chance at NFL history. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
Louisville extends athletic director Josh Heird for 5 years through June 2030
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