Noteworthy:

1. Abandon Nest asks "Is Manual Labor More Fun?":"Take a lawnmower as an example. Sure, he has to get the grass cut, and he needs to do it relatively quickly and efficiently, but it's really all up to him which way he mows. He may form a checkerboard, or a set of parallel lines, or a radiant starburst for crying out loud."

2. Madame X offers the inspiring graduation speech she was never invited to give: "I'm not trying to say that every college graduate should become a lawyer when what they really want to do is play the banjo. There will always be people who SHOULD pursue that dream of playing the banjo, or making sculpture, or acting, for the benefit of the rest of us. But if you're the person who loves playing the banjo, but not enough to want to make the sacrifices that most professional banjo players have to make, that's okay: it shouldn't feel like a defeat if you work a 9-to-5 job and then hack around on your banjo all weekend."

3. Thinking About Money is thinking about why the government wants you to get a Roth IRA so much, and whether that's in your best interests: "Roth contributions mean tax income now, and Roth conversions mean lots of tax income now. That tax income reduces the deficit today, which is exactly what you want to see before elections to make things look better than they are."