If you build it, they will come. But not necessarily.

A recent three-part report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveals that the building spree by Milwaukee Public Schools is a dismal failure.

The $102 million initiative to revamp buildings was supposed to get students into local neighborhood schools and improve education. Instead, newly furnished classrooms are used for storage, and half-empty buildings are sprinkled throughout the district. Many specialty teachers in the fields of science, art and music have been downsized in budget cuts while enrollment has continued to tumble.

Like many urban school districts, Milwaukee Public Schools works with some of the poorest children in the city. Many of the children literally do not have parents. They may be living with a grandparent, uncle, aunt or other relative. At the school where my husband works, more than 20 children are bused to school from a homeless shelter. Even those who are lucky enough to have a biological parent often have only one. At a recent open house at an elementary school of approximately 200 children, only six fathers showed up.

It is clear that what these children need are parents, not just buildings. And if they do not have parents involved in their education, someone else better be available. Instead of facilities and expensive buildings, the money would have been better spent with additional staffing in the classroom, mentors for individual development, and tutors for special help. The $102 million could have purchased a lot of services for these children and their families.

Ed McMahon has finally found a buyer for his multi-million dollar house avoiding foreclosure. Reportedly, his mortage lenders filed notice of default in Februrary when McMahon was over $644,00 in arrears. When McMahon was interviewed regarding his money woes, he blamed his financial problems on having broken his neck about 18 months ago, preventing him from working.

I certainly can empathize with health issues causing financial hardship, but where's the bucks? McMahon worked for over 30 years on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, was the host of Star Search and spokesperson for dozens of products. I repeat: "Where's the bucks?"

While several accounts connect McMahon's problems to the credit squeeze and U.S. housing downturn, I think it has a lot more to do with poor money management. At 85 years old, with a career that spanned decades, you would think that McMahon would be financial secure. But I have seen this before.

Elizabeth Edwards is on the cover of the latest People Magazine and offers a candid interview inside of the anguish, pain, and decisions that she faced after learning of her husband's affair with a former campaign aide, Rielle Hunter. Recognizing that she has been diagnosed with a terminal illness that could leave her three children without a mother was reportedly a factor in her decision to stay in the marriage.

Children are one of the reasons that women stay in a marriage where a husband has strayed, but it shouldn't be the only reason. Women's income generally drops an average of 16% while a man's increases by 23% according to the NY Times. They often don't have the earning power of their spouses or may have been out of the workforce due to the demands of child raising.

A friend is planning her wedding, and here in Portland with our DIY culture, we're not headed to the nearest Hallmark store for cards, preferring to make our own. And besides, Hallmark doesn't make cards to celebrate gay marriage, right?

As of this summer, wrong. Lots of my friends are driving down to California to take advantage of the availability of same-sex marriage licenses this season, and they'll be able to come back home to mailboxes flooded with Hallmark cards appropriate to the occasion -- after all, it's not just the "quirky" locals who need to congratulate the happy couples, but extended family and relatives living all over the country.

Is the standardization of congratulation cause for celebration in the gay community? Does having a Hallmark card for something legitimize it as worthy of taking its place in our culture's Roster of Emotionally Significant Events? I think the answer to these questions is yes, and of course, silly though it may be.

One thing though. Independent card maker Rob Fortier told the AP: "A lot of people think a gay greeting card needs a rainbow on it. I don't want that." An informal survey of a half-dozen gay friends, some of whom are soon to be married, agreed. Noted: no rainbows.

Ahh, Tuesdays. It may be the beginning of the work week, but living in Portland I get to wake up to the food section of the Oregonian and get my morning foodie fix. This week I was attracted by the enormous photo of families laughing together in a kitchen. "The New Portland Potluck" blared the headline. Fun!

Turns out the "New Portland Potluck" is not potluck at all, but a crafty way to keep one family's personal chef from raising her prices; they offered a weekly dinner to their neighbors, only $25 per family plus groceries. A bargain, right?

I spent the first several hours of the day angry over the fact that (a) people would call a regular dinner party with a personal chef a "potluck" and (b) that the writer of the story justified such a questionable financial choice -- charging your neighbors for coming over for dinner -- by noting that it was cheaper than eating out at a restaurant. Then I started to wonder if I was a little off-base in my mental ranting; an infrequent meal out at a neighborhood trendy brewpub for my family of five can cost $50 or more.

I'm still not cool with charging your friends to come to dinner (and if I'm going to have a "potluck," I'm going to enjoy the best part of a potluck; preparing something with love for friends and sharing in the discovery of great family recipes and techniques). But I've decided it's not a totally dumb financial move, especially if you have more control over the ingredients. What do you think? Are "post-modern potlucks" where you bill your buddies a waste of cash or good money sense?

For lots of couples, a dream wedding involves an exotic location for the nuptials -- maybe a beach, a mountaintop, or a spectacular garden. You don't find these things just anywhere, which is why lots of couples opt for destination weddings.

A destination wedding is simply a getaway wedding. Usually smaller than a typical hometown wedding, everyone travels, often overseas, for the destination wedding. Sounds expensive, huh?

Surprisingly, destination weddings can be a huge money saver -- for the bride and groom. Guests will probably shell out at least three times more to attend one of these weddings than a wedding close to home, so couples who go this route should be sensitive to financial restrictions and accept regrets with no hard feelings.

As anyone who's done a bit of dating can attest, playing the field can be a learning experience. Personally speaking, my years of dating taught me many key things that have helped me greatly in my marriage. I learned that I should never miss a birthday, that leaving the seat down is a great way to say "I love you," and that one needs to deal with problems quickly, honestly, and directly.

My biggest teacher in this regard was Holly. During one Christmas break, she ducked my calls, made cryptic statements about friends that she was seeing, and refused to get into a conversation that lasted more than a few minutes. After about two weeks, she finally admitted that an old boyfriend had proposed to her and that she was dumping me. Later, when I had my own break-ups, I was careful to avoid Holly's mistakes. I tried to make things quick and clear, and I generally sucked it up and did my dirty work face-to-face.

Still, the Holly method is actually pretty popular; in the age of e-Mail, text messaging, and cell phones, it seems somewhat old fashioned to actually conduct one's relationships in person. In fact, between webcams and social networking sites, I'm beginning to wonder if one even needs to actually meet a boyfriend or girlfriend!

A while back, my wife and I passed one of the major landmarks of adulthood: we took out life insurance policies.

While we had both had life insurance before, it was provided by our employers; this, on the other hand, was something that we paid for all by ourselves. While we didn't contract for spousal-murder/film noir levels of insurance, the money should keep our daughter and the surviving spouse covered for a while if the worst should happen. If, by lucky happenstance, we make it to the end of term, we have the option of cashing out the policies and taking a long, long trip.

Recently, I learned about another possibility: if we should manage to live into our sixties, we have the option of selling our life insurance policies. Some companies, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, purchase life insurance polices, often for as much as 20-30% of the death benefit. As this far outstrips the premium repayment that my wife and I were thinking about, it is a pretty attractive option. Some sites, including Policysettlement, offer estimates on the value of extant life insurance policies.

A while back, I read about Walter Scott, a New Zealand man who decided to sell his soul to the highest bidder. After his online auction was taken down, he was contacted by Hell Pizza, a New Zealand pizza chain. Recognizing the publicity value that could be gleaned by this stunt, the chain offered Scott $3,800 for his soul. He agreed, and his soul now belongs to Hell (Pizza, Inc.).

This isn't the first time that a soul has gone up for sale on an internet auction site. In 2001, Adam Burtle, a student at the University of Washington, received a $400 bid for his soul before eBay yanked his listing. A few years later, Hermant Mehta offered his soul for sale, again on eBay. Basically, he agreed to visit whichever church the winner chose. Ultimately, Jim Henderson, a minister from Washington state, won the auction with a $504 bid. Mehta donated the money to the Secular Student Alliance and wrote up his soul-selling experiences in a book, I Sold My Soul on eBay.

Two generations ago most families lived on working farms. All family members participated in the work and had responsibilities. School was designed to give the children the summer off primarily because they were needed on the farm to help with the planting and harvest of crops. Children had responsibilities and a role in the family.

Fast forward to the present. Most families no longer live in the country and in too many homes children have no real work to do. With the advent of TV in the 50's, an amazing change happened to the role of children in this country: their primary role became "a consumer."

This change began gradually with Saturday morning cartoons and cereal commercials. These cereal ads were really the first attempt to market directly to kids. Perhaps you remember them? Cereal with submarines and other toys in the box so the kids beg, cried, and screamed until their parents bought it.

While I'd be hard-pressed to describe my Aunt Linda as rational, her love of Elvis borders on complete insanity. Even now, thirty years after his death, he still stands high in her pantheon, somewhere just south of God and just north of George W. Bush. Let others differentiate between Army Elvis, black leather Elvis, fat Elvis and Hawaiian Elvis. She loves -- nay, venerates -- them all.

While Linda's Elvis mania disturbs me on a deep, almost primal level, it also has given me a clear glimpse into the world of the Elvis junkie. Consequently, I wasn't all that surprised when I discovered that his famed "peacock jumpsuit" recently sold for $300,000. This is the largest amount of money ever paid for an Elvis collectible and, probably, the largest amount of money ever paid for a hand-embroidered piece of polyester double knit. Prior to this, the most expensive piece of Elvis memorabilia was his 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II, which went for $295,000. The most expensive costume was his "aloha cape," which sold for $105,250.

Between the ever-inflating dollar and the King's never-deflating fan base, I don't imagine that this is the last Elvis record I'll see broken. While it's a little late to get in on the ground floor with Elvis memorabilia, one sometimes hears rumors of vials of Elvis sweat being sold on the black market. Of course, if you really want to get close to the King, you can always try his recipe for fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. Although he's only driven through Memphis, he once visited Miniature Graceland.

Jamie Lynn Spears (sister of Britney) is on the cover of the latest edition of OK! Magazine holding her newborn daughter, Maddie. Looking beautiful and rested, she is quoted as saying "Being a mom is the best feeling in the world." A teenage icon, Jamie Lynn is the star of Nickelodeon's "Zoe 101," and idolized by millions of young girls. Pregnant at 16 and a mother by age 17, Jamie Lynn is described in the article as living in "domestic bliss."

Great message for the kids. Maybe it works this way for wealthy celebrities, but for most teens the happily ever after ending doesn't happen. In real life, teen pregnancy traps women in a cycle of low paying jobs and poverty. In fact, teen parents are nine times more likely to live in poverty long term.

Earlier this year, Yahoo News interviewed Republican candidate John McCain. They asked him a simple question: "What kind of computer do you use? Mac or PC? His answer? "Neither. I am an illiterate who has to rely on my wife."

Scary stuff if you ask me. In an era where terrorists have laptops in their caves and Bin Laden organizes his followers through the internet, the idea of a President who can't log on is terrifying. Not being plugged in is the equivalent of being Out Of It according to Anna Quindlen in her recent Newsweek column. And being OOT just isn't an option for any of us regardless of age.

The majority of Americans ARE online with many older Americans using e-mail for years. My mother is 87 years old and regularily surfs, answers e-mails, and maintains a webpage. She is not alone. Surveys of the older, well educated population finds that three out of four use the internet on a regular basis.

There is a lot of new research on happiness and money with some surprising results. While Americans have become more affluent, their happiness levels have not really increased. In a series of studies by the University of Chicago, the average U.S. Family has become 60% richer in the last thirty years, but they are not significantly happier. In 1960, approximately 42% of Americans surveyed pronounced themselves "very happy."

A similar poll in 1990, found that 43% were "very happy." What seems to matter most for your sense of well-being and your happiness level is how you stack up against your neighbors. People tend to use this yardstick of comparison to evaluate their money and circumstances. Even a millionaire will feel miserable in the company of billionaires.

One of the sacred memories of an American childhood is going upscale. M&Ms, those much-loved candy-coated bits of chocolate that could salve any ouchie, are now going premium, which means fancier coatings, fancier flavors, fancier packaging...all at a much fancier price. Why? Blame it on the fancy chocolate market.

My wife is a premium chocolate junkie, which means that, in the eight or so years that we've been together, I've learned more than I ever thought possible about chocolate. I have absorbed information about chocolate liqueur, cacao percentage, cocoa mass, cocoa solids, country of origin, and all the other variables that separate the Dagoba from the Valhrona, the Scharffen-Berger from the Hershey's and the top-of-the-line from the bottom of the barrel.

Personally, though, my tastes have always tended toward the more proletarian. While I appreciate the occasional bar of 72% cocoa solids, dark Belgian chocolate, I still get a big kick out of a couple of Reese's cups, a packet of Kit-Kats, or a handful of kisses. Most of all, like millions of other Americans, I have a big, warm, candy-coated spot in my heart for M&Ms.

Over the years, M&Ms have gone through quite a few transformations. Originally given to soldiers in World War II, the peanut and chocolate candies with a hard shell were later joined by solid chocolate, almond (1988), peanut butter (1990), dark chocolate (2005), and crisped-rice (1998-2005) candies. They have been mixed with a variety of flavorings, super-sized, and even shrunk to miniatures.