Gallup Sun

As I approach the magical age of 40, I’m supposedly getting to the peak of my life (and then it’s all downhill from there). What I didn’t realize is what a rude awakening this would be for my newly aching body. My kids all still want to be held from time to time, which is killing my back. Now, before you recommend your favorite chiropractor, allow me to make a segue as weak as my back.

Today I want to introduce you to the idea of “back slang.” Feel free to groan all you want, but I had to whet your appetite for a healthy dose of word nerdery.

For those of you who love wordplay, back slang is a way to play with language in which you speak or spell a word backward. Easy as...

You are likely to be retired much longer than you think.

For how long do you think you will live? Do you believe you’ll live into your late 70s? Are you confident you’ll follow in the path of your parents, who were alive and well into their mid to late 80s?

The average joint life expectancy (men and women together) is approximately 90 years for over 49% of the population. A full 20% of Americans live to age 95!

Depending on your unique perspective, that’s either good or bad. It’s good because many people want to live for as long as possible, provided they are in decent physical and mental health. However, a long life can be bad news when it puts you at risk of outliving your...

On Jan. 1,  we marked the end of four decades of predatory lending in New Mexico, thanks to a new law that reduces the maximum annual interest rate on small loans from 175%, one of the highest rates allowed anywhere in the nation, to 36%.

As Think New Mexico explained in our 2020 policy report making the case for this reform, the 36% interest rate cap is actually a return to a highly effective consumer protection law that was in effect from the mid-1950s through the early-1980s.

In the 1950s, the New Mexico legislature and governor capped the annual interest rates of loans at no more than 36%. This law protected consumers while still allowing plenty of access to credit...

I didn’t wear glasses until I was 19. As an up-and-coming visionary word nerd, I had never thought I needed corrective lenses. Of course, I always fancied monocles, although I didn’t know how to keep one in place.

As it turned out, I was near-sighted. I learned this by attending a large lecture hall-format class in college. I found myself squinting to see the professor’s handwritten notes scrawled on the chalkboard. I began to get headaches from the eyestrain.

Soon enough, I went to an optometrist and got my first prescription glasses. Now I look 17% smarter!

You knew a grammar tie-in was coming, and here it is: the headache caused by a squinting modifier. Yes, squinting (or...