GOOD STUFF
Good for Ford. It’s great when people do the right thing – and in this country, standing up against discrimination is the right thing.
Good luck to the people of Iraq. As tragically as we’ve blundered (not the fault of our amazing military and troops), may today go well for the long-suffering Iraqis.
Good post over at Yahoo finance on NTMD. Don’t sell your puts.
Good heavens – it’s Marie’s birthday. Happy birthday, Marie! (Push, Yolanda – push.‘)
EAR PLANES
Barry Bottger: ‘I swear by ’em. My ears are especially sensitive during takeoff and landing. Before Ear Planes, the landing pain could get so bad and I’d be grimacing so violently that, today, I’d probably be escorted off the plane due to ‘questionable behavior.’ $6.50? A bargain. And available at better drug stores everywhere.’
SWEET CARROTS
Russell Bell: ‘The carrots you find in most grocery stores have been bred for size and sturdiness and picked at an advanced age. (‘Baby carrots’ are adult carrots cut down to baby size as a marketing gimmick.) Grow your own carrots, pick them young, and taste how sweet a carrot can be.’
Wkwillis: ‘Carrots are like corn. They are sweet when fresh and rapidly enzyme polymerize the sugar to starch when picked. Corn should be picked after the water to cook them is already boiling. Carrots should be eaten as soon as they have been pulled out of the ground. If you are worried about nematodes, you can wash them first, with the water you are carrying with you. Don’t wait till you get back to the house.’
☞ I never worried about nematodes before, but I sure will now. As for pulling them out of the ground, where I’m from, we don’t have ground, we have pavement.
Dave Budde: ‘Reminds me of the time I went on the Atkins diet. A couple of weeks into it, my girlfriend made some osso buco with carrots. They tasted like candy. Sweetest thing I think I ever ate. The normal American diet is so filled with sugar that you can’t taste the good stuff when it counts.’
CREDIT CARDS
Scott Nicol: ‘Credit card minimum payment requirements are on the rise. This is a good thing. But if you have payments made automatically, you might want to check that the payments still cover your minimum payment. Not that you should normally carry credit card debt, but I was almost caught off-guard by MBNA’s minimum payment increase this month. MBNA has been so nice as to lend me, at 0% interest, a healthy sum of money on three separate occasions since 2002. I’ve never paid a dime of interest to them (only $100 in fees, total), but gained more than $2000 in interest as this money was sitting in my bank. Not bad for an hour of work. I think MBNA are slow learners. Repayment is easy, since you can setup recurring payments on their online system. But the system has no option for making a minimum payment, you must specify the amount. Had I not looked at this month’s statement, my scheduled payment would have been far too small, triggering penalties and interest. So check your automatic minimum payments.’
