Well, it turns out Reagan never did say AIDS in his State of the Union address, so he seems to have used the word exactly once in his first 6 years in office. And if you thought yesterday’s Larry Speakes transcript was bad . . .
But before we start all that again (I thought yesterday was your last word!), how about at least a smidgeon of personal finance?
EARN A SMIDGEON EXTRA
Andy Martin: ‘ING Direct‘s 5-year CD at the moment pays 4.4%. If you don’t make it to 5 years, and decide to do something else with the money, you forfeit half the rate and so earn only 2.2%. But that’s still higher than ING’s current 2.1% rate. So why not take the CD? Worst case, you earn a little more.’
SAVE A SMIDGEON
Gary Diehl: ‘I have always been quick to use generics, but after having been given a large bottle of Tide detergent sometime back [If only Charles were satisfied with gifts like this!-A.T.] I discovered something interesting. Tide was so thick and powerful compared to the watery brand I usually used, it actually made the clothes feel soapy. So each time I washed using less, until I discovered that a quarter of the recommended amount worked great. Everything comes out very clean and smelling good. Sometimes if I have a truly grimy load I will go to a third. For bad stains I will pre-treat them with a spray bottle filled with (you guessed it) Tide. I switched over a year ago, my clothes are just as clean, and I spend less money keeping them that way.’
IT MAY SEEM LIKE A SMIDGEON TO YOU, BUT . . .
Harry Mark: ‘A quote I thought you might enjoy (attributed to Anonymous): If you lend a guy twenty dollars and you never see him again, it was probably worth the money.‘
☞ I lent Mark Holman $15 in the summer of 1970, back when $15 was more – especially to me – than it is now. And I never saw him again. And, I don’t want to frighten any of you, but: I’m still looking for him.
Tomorrow: Laying Blame Where’s It’s Due
