Wedding blues

Rodney King, whose beating at the hands of Los Angeles police led to deadly rioting in 1992, is engaged to a woman who served on the jury that awarded him $3.8 million in a subsequent lawsuit, according to the gossip website Radar Online.

No word yet on whether the couple's wedding vows will include the words, "Can we all get along?"

Hole in the water: Hobbies can drain your bank account unless you follow money-saving principles, such as renting, instead of purchasing, expensive tools for a one-off home handyman project, or putting off buying that $3,000 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top until you figure out whether you actually possess some aptitude for playing a guitar.

Now if you own a boat, you have to remember only one money-saving principle: Sell it.

Life stinks: Americans can't merely blame the big banks, the Obama and Bush administrations or Congress for the great recession, because some of the blame also belongs to folks who overspent, saved too little and borrowed too much, writes personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary.

So, to sum up: We shouldn't use credit cards to get cool stuff, and we shouldn't blame others for our problems. Man, what a mess.

-- Mark Carlson, Herald staff