Lauren Weber grew up with a father who rationed toilet paper and rarely used his car's turn signals (to prevent them from burning out). She was formerly a staff reporter at Newsday and Reuters, and has also written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other publications.
My father is being immortalized for rationing our toilet paper
“Marketplace,” the excellent public radio show about business and economics, asked me to write a short tribute to my dad for its Father’s Day broadcast. After it aired, my dad told me he felt the opening was a little harsh,* but he said he appreciated the sentiments at the end. It was all meant with great love. If you’d like to listen to the piece, here it is.
* My father doesn’t remember the heat being as low as 50 degrees in our house. But when I pointed out that my mother and sister back me up on this, he apologized and said he should take us all on a trip to a warm climate. (A friend of mine, on hearing this, said, “Like to the laundry room?”)
Recent publications
In Cheap We Trust
The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue
Little, Brown and Co.
Sept. 7, 2009
You can probably find the book at your local library. But if you'd like your own copy, you can buy it at
