OZY Daily Dose

Frankly, it had been a long day. Life's professional and personal pangs wore on me, the ache in my back a physical manifestation of my internal anxiety. The last thing I wanted to do was strap up my laces, toss on a helmet and start a 10-mile bike ride through the woods. But there are things greater than ourselves, those motivating forces that cause us to search deep within, find the strength to smile and force ourselves to carry on. In this particular moment, mine was simple: tacos.

I see myself as an elite lover of clairvoyance. I go only to special, selective seers.My friend Helen? She took me to Chinatown, in New York City, hobbling up the spiral staircase of the old tenement. She served as the translator. But I've gotten charts done in Sri Lanka, and saw a specialist in Borough Park, among the religious Jews. I even paid a hefty fee to a woman in Indiana to cleanse my chakras over the phone.

OZY and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have partnered to bring you an inside look at how entrepreneurs are coming up with innovative methods to help the communities around them. Enjoy the rest of our special series here.How do you manage time when there seems to be less of it? With many businesses planning to close over the holidays, the pressure is on to get everything done - and doubly fast. But these added demands can make things worse.

So, there's a sports fan on your gift list ... what to give the ballplaying zealot? Fear not, my friend. Whether you're shopping for a turkey-stuffed dad dedicated to the couch and a full slate of football or a child still exploring their fandom, the gift ideas below cover a broad spectrum of giving options. This year, don't be the one who hands out socks on Christmas. Let me show you the way.

You don't have to do any of this, you know. If you don't like your family or if they make you feel bad, you don't have to go see them. You also don't have to get anybody presents. Just celebrate the holiday of your choosing alone in your apartment with Chinese food. Adulthood is better than you ever thought it could be!But you also have to listen to your heart, and there's no shame in getting guilty gifts for people you don't really know well enough to be thoughtful about.

It's an annual gift-giving dilemma: What to buy that friend who spends hours a day immersed in books, but reads titles so obscure they can only be ordered online from a used bookstore in Kentucky? Or that cousin you haven't seen in years with a penchant for the parchment?"Unless you really know someone's literary taste and what books they already have, you should buy them a book accessory," says Leigh Altshuler, director of communications at the Strand Book Store in New York.

You ever have one of those friends who could routinely be counted on, no matter how daft the task, to do just about anything for a desired reward? Jump down a flight of stairs for a candy bar? Taunt a vicious dog for a bag of chips? Stick your hand in a dark hole for kicks and giggles?Well, chances are if you haven't had a friend like that, YOU are the friend like that. In this instance, though, that friend's always been me.

EUGENE, SIR: I’m 46 and my wife is three years younger than me. We’ve been married for 26 years and have a fairly active sex life, but I wouldn’t say it’s as adventurous as it once was. Over the years we have discussed things like threesomes but always decided they wouldn’t be good for the relationship. We have also discussed our fantasies — one of my wife’s most dominant ones has been to be double-penetrated by two men.

EUGENE, SIR: My ex, with whom I am friendly, is pregnant and engaged to be married. This is not a problem. I recently expressed a “mild” opinion that her situation was somewhat “unusual,” and she flipped out and is demanding an apology before continuing our friendship. I like our friendship but feel incapable of complying … she is going to marry the son of another guy she used to date.

Every Saturday from April to November, the Dane County Farmers Market in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, is a sight to behold: More than 150 vendors set up in the square around the capitol building and a constant stream of shoppers moves in a steady counterclockwise ripple. It’s a producer-only market; everyone behind a stand has raised, grown or otherwise produced their goods in Wisconsin themselves — be it carrots or cheese curds, flowers or beef jerky.