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Vol. 24, No. 1 • January, 2006

Just How Crazy Are Crazy Mortgages?

(Money Magazine)

Everyday Briefs

Management..................... how you handle mistakes is a reflection of your own attitudes towards people, your own levels of understanding and sensitivity. The less you tolerate mistakes, the less human you will appear to people. But there is a limit to that tolerance. There’s a line between minor damage and major damage. The trouble is that too many bosses see minor mistakes as catastrophes. Most people don’t want to make mistakes and are keen to learn from them. Why tell them off when they’ve already learned? Look critically at yourself and eliminate any tendency to punish people who fail. Mistakes are an essential part of learning. Mind you, if they continue to make the same mistakes, it’s a different ball game. (Things You Must Do to be a Great Boss)

 One of Those Little Mistakes ............... It was entertainment night at the senior center and the Amazing Claude was topping the bill. People came from miles around to see the famed hypnotist do his stuff. As Claude went to the front of the meeting room, he announced, "Unlike most hypnotists who invite two or three people up here to be put into a trance, I intend to hypnotize each and every member of the audience." The excitement was almost electric as Claude withdrew a beautiful antique pocket watch from his coat. "I want you each to keep your eye on this antique watch. It's a very special watch. It's been in my family for six generations. He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting, Watch the watch, watch the watch, watch the watch..." The crowd became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth, light gleaming off its polished surface. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed the swaying watch, until, suddenly,----- it slipped from the hypnotist's fingers and fell to the floor, breaking into a hundred pieces. Sh _ t!" said the Hypnotist............. It took three weeks to clean up the senior center! (Mel)

Still a Bargain at $150,000 Each ............................ Sick and tired of losing experienced special forces to private security firms waving bricks of dollars at soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon recently offered $150,000 re-enlistment bonuses to SEALs and Green Berets with 19 years or more of service. It worked. Gen. Doug Brown, head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, reveals that 601 people took the tax-free bonus that expired in October. Don’t choke on the price: Training one soldier tops $300,000. (U.S. News & World Report)

Lines Used to Show Old Age........................ I feel like my body has gotten totally out of shape, so I got my doctor’s permission to join a fitness club and start exercising. I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors. I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour. But, by the time I got my leotards on, the class was over . . . . .

Reporters interviewing a 104-year-old woman: “And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?” the reporter asked. She simply replied, “No peer pressure.”

It’s scary when you start making the same noises as your coffeemaker . . . . .

Now Remember . . . . You don’t stop laughing because you grow old, You grow old because you stop laughing. (B. Drevs)

48 ............... The average number of days that it took for an American company to fill a job vacancy in 2004. The average cost per hire was $3,270.00 (BusinessWeek)

In The Intelligence of Dogs (New York: The Free Press, 1994),.................. Stanley Coren ranked breeds of dogs for working intelligence. The rankings were based on questionnaires completed by 199 obedience judges from the American and Canadian Kennel Clubs.

10 Most Intelligent Breeds of Dogs:

1. Border collie                                       6. Shetland sheepdog

2. Poodle                                                7. Labrador retriever

3. German shepherd                                8. Papillon

4. Golden retriever                                  9. Rottweiler

5. Doberman pinscher                            10. Australian cattle dog

10 Least Intelligent Breeds of Dogs:

1. Afghan hound                                     6. Bloodhound

2. Basenji                                               7. Pekingese

3. Bulldog                                              8. Mastiff

4. Chow chow                                       9. Beagle

5. Borzoi                                               10. Basset hound

Fee For All...................... Americans will pay an estimated $4.3 billion to withdraw cash from ATMs this year as fees hit an all-time high. Average ATM Surcharge (fees for those not holding an account with the ATM Bank) (BusinessWeek)

2001 = $1.36 / 2002 = $1.38 / 2003 = $1.40 / 2004 = $1.37 / 2005 = $1.54

Just Grabbing a Few Items ........................ At 6:05 a.m. at O’Hare I mosey into a shop to grab a few items. As I approach the register, the clerk chirps, “$3.25 please.” I asked how she knew. She said she’d watched me and liked to do the math in her head. I was impressed. I recalled anew the ability of a spirited employee, using a clever trick or two, to change the course of the day - literally - for her customers. A tiny, spontaneous, human act has enormous power. Folks like Southwest Airlines’ Herb Kelleher, who encourage such regular expressions of individual personality, find that most people are up to it - and the payoffs are enormous. (The Pursuit of WOW)

Each King............................. in a deck of playing cards represents a great King from history:

Spades = King David / Hearts = Charlemagne

Clubs = Alexander the Great / Diamonds - Julius Caesar (Mel)

If.............................. a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. (Mel)

A Original Piece of Art ..................... Elevate your genetic quirks to fine art status! Mail a swab of saliva - and $390 - to DNA 11, and the Canadian company will send back a high-quality print of your personal code bathed in fluorescent dye. You choose the background color, but the full glory of your strings and base pairs (only a fraction of the 3 billion in the human genome are displayed) is brought out by software developed by cofounders Nazim Ahmed and Adrian Salamunovic. Finally, someone’s found a way to exploit your inner beauty. (Wired) Go to: http://www.dna11.com/                                                 

Sincerely,

Edward C. Levy

President