There seems to be a misconception that ragtime music died along with the western saloons and brothels in which it reached its fruition. That isn’t true. If you grew up playing Nintendo, you may not even realize that you are a huge ragtime fan. You know dozens of ragtime hits and hearing them will probably…
DetailsPatti Page just died. If you are a member of my generation or younger, the odds are overwhelming that you have no idea who Patti Page was. In the 1950’s, she was the third best selling artist of the decade and had lifetime album sales exceeding 100,000,000 records. Given the lower population base back then, and the limited distribution channels, she was a far bigger cultural force in her generation than someone like, say, Beyoncé Knowles or Kayne West is today. Her song, “Tennessee Waltz” was the third best selling song of all time. Very few people I know even recognize the song today, let alone could sing it.
DetailsI’m reading a book called Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner. As the review said, “There was a time, for a handful of peppercorns, you could have someone killed. Throw in a nutmeg or two, you could probably watch. There was a time when grown men sat around and thought of nothing but black…
DetailsA few hours ago, I finished writing a piece about global investing through a Roth IRA, which was published to the About.com network. It got into some of the complexities of foreign investing, including the differences between share classes domiciled in various markets and currency translations. As I was thinking about whether there was anything…
DetailsI’ve noticed an array of articles exclaiming that savings bonds, including both the Series EE savings bonds and the Series I savings bonds, beat stocks over the past ten or fifteen years. Nearly every time I make my way into one of these essays or news stories, I just shake my head because the surprise displayed by the men and women penning these pieces indicate a complete lack of competence. Those of you who have any experience managing money or with history immediately know my objective: No asset class, per se, is sacrosanct. What matters is the price you pay for the asset relative to how much underlying cash it generates.
DetailsFor water to freeze, it must reach 32 degrees Fahrenheit. For water to boil, it must reach 212 degrees Fahrenheit. The question: Which freezes faster: Room temperature water (say, 75 degrees Fahrenheit) or boiling water (212 degrees Fahrenheit)? The common sense answer would be room temperature water would freeze faster because it is only 43…
DetailsRadical simplicity. The phrase that has been on my mind, constantly humming in the background almost ceaselessly, for the past three or four weeks is “radical simplicity”. It’s the last thought on my mind when I fall asleep at night, and the first thing I think about when I wake up.
DetailsThis mail bag speaks for itself. Joshua, I woke up this morning and expected to see something about the elementary school shootings. Why don’t you discuss current events more often? Anonymous By Request Earlier today, a 36 year old walked into an elementary school in Chenpeng village, Henan province, China, and stabbed 22 children with a…
DetailsAfter the apple pies I’ve been turning out, there has been demand for cherry pies of comparable quality given that everyone around here seems to prefer them. I do not have a cherry pie recipe, so I thought to turn to America’s Test Kitchen to find some of their suggestions. America’s Test Kitchen is one of my favorite…
DetailsLast night, I adapted the layered pudding Oreo dessert into pie form, making two Oreo pies, which are now sitting in the second refrigerator. It was the first, and only time, in my life I have ever used a pre-made pie crust dough but the goal is to develop a simplified recipe that anyone can make,…
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