The do-it-yourself version of pensions is a flop, as many Americans have painfully learned.

The threat to globalization is not the wasted American dollars but Washington's readiness to mix US commercial interests with its self-appointed role as global protector.

Do. Then talk. In that order.

Just like any one of us, they started with no road map or guarantee of success. But they went out and picked up the ball or the pen, the guitar or the kitchen knife, and took the first step. An then, the next.

When a writer becomes a reader of his or her own work, a lot can go wrong. It's like do-it-yourself dentistry.

You write a hit play the same way you write a flop.