20 Hard and Fast Rules to Help You Beat the Stock Market
By Simon Thompson.
Friday the 13th – applies only to Germany, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Japan, Spain, Norway, Sweden and UK (Unsure why in just these countries and not others).
Historically, Fridays produce better returns than any other day of the week. Studies have shown that for the markets in the above countries, returns on Fridays on the 13th were significantly higher compared to other Fridays (in some cases, 10 times greater).
No one can come up with a good explanation, but the data samples have been substantial and cover a long period of time (going back to 1935).
The play? Buy an index fund shortly before the close of trading on Thursday and sell before close on Friday.
Even though this doesn’t seem to apply to the US markets, we just have one in 2011, and we just had it – May 13th.
Next are January, April and July 2012.
By Mindy Kaling.
By Walter Isaacson. Fascinating read. Highly recommend.
By Michael Lewis.
I’ve NOT been following the Middle East news of late – been too enthralled over the Greek/Italy/Euro situation. I just read this on 
To get to the trail head of Black Butte, you need to drive along a long dirt road that is VERY rutty. 
A couple years ago we were going to do this hike but there was a big forest fire the day before we planned to hike. 
A couple years ago I first saw these roundy bottom shoes at the shoe store next to the Sbux, downtown. They were selling for close to $300! 
Twice now in the past week, I’ve been behind someone in line at the cash register and the woman wrote a check, ripped it from her checkbook to give to the cashier, and then asked the cashier “What’s the check number on that check?”.
By Nina Burleigh. I’ll assume everyone reading this knows who Amanda Knox is, but just in case: she’s the American from Seattle who was studying in Perugia, Italy for a semester.
While in Spokane I read that we could see Bing Crosby’s Oscar in Crosby Student Center’s Crosbyana Room at Gonzaga University.
This is Doloris as a younger woman.
This is Doloris with one too many eye jobs or face lifts, or whatever it was she couldn’t get enuf of.
I bet she took plastic surgery advise from her friend.
While walking around Coeur d’Alene’s downtown, we noticed a line forming outside of Munson’s Hamburgers. Munson’s is now Hudson’s but for some reason the old named awning is still up.
Biggest disappointment? The city boasts that it has the “world’s longest floating boardwalk that runs 3300′”. We all have a visual of what that may look like. Now put that away and imagine just a boat harbor walkway connecting various lanes of where boats could be moored. Yep it’s just the loop used to get on and off your boat at the dock.
Bend has a ranch with white buffalos! In March 2010, 11 rare white buffalos re-located here from the Grand Canyon area.
The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is an 11 acre park near downtown Minneapolis. It is one of the largest urban sculpture gardens in the US.
The stunning and massive cathedral sits on Cathedral Hill within site of the capitol and overlooking downtown St. Paul. It features a distinctive copper dome.
We were planning on being in Minnesota for over a week. Minneapolis is one of the top 5 bike friendly cites in the US. Since we were flying and couldn’t bring our bikes, we decided to buy or rent two.
Subtitle: The World’s Greatest Investors You’ve Never Heard Of and What You Can Learn From Them by Matthew Schifrin.
I thought ketchup potato chips were only available in Canada. We were recently in a 
We recently started letting our cats go outside. To our dismay, we have discovered that Black Cat is quite the hunter of birds. 
While at the Country Fair, I manned the pedal powered blender.
While at the grocery store I saw that they now make Reese’s Peanut Butter Whoppers. I really dig Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but I don’t think malty Peanut Butter Cups would be tasty…too much going on/thrown in together.
That’s what our neighbor said when she saw us getting out of an Audi Crossover. 
The last show we saw was the Lewi Longmire Band from Portland. They played Americana/rock. I liked them. Would recommend seeing them again when they come to Bend.
On our way into Eugene we passed thru Springfield, which must be the barbed wire fence capital of the states. I couldn’t believe all the fences with barbed wire. Especially the empty lots or the empty, dilapidated buildings with barbed wire around it.
When we arrived at our hotel in Eugene, I asked the desk clerk about Springfield, and he said that they won’t rent rooms to people with a Springfield address on their drivers license.
What a s**thole! 
Yes, the remnants of the 2002 wildfire [which started from a sagging electrical line].
Tonight we saw Mitsuki Dazai play the koto. The koto is a traditional Japanese wooden instrument with thick, really tight strings. Underneath the strings are bridges, which look like little ivory Eiffel Towers. 
Since we enjoyed the 
Since we didn’t value the ticket prices the same as the Shakespeare Festival Ticket Price Committee, we partook in the Green Show. Every night from 7.15 – 8 pm on the outdoor courtyard stage there was a FREE performance. 
Ashland, home to the 9 months long Shakespeare Festival and the country’s oldest Elizabethan theatre. 
I had never seen a skateboard hanger before.
I road my bike around the park and part way up to Mt Ashland. I stopped here to read in the shade while listening to the babbling Ashland Creek gurgle next to me.
View from part way up Mt Ashland.
There is an ongoing, persistent (is that redundant?) smell of honeysuckle in the air. I really like the smell, so I’m digging it. Makes sitting outside even better!
that he apparently doesn’t have time to take off his sunglasses while having lunch.
By Shania Twain.
By Shirley MacLaine.
According to Altria (the maker of Marlboro cigarettes) a Marlboro buyer makes an average of 10 trips per month to gas stations or convenience stores and spends $17 on each trip. 82% of these consumers buy beverages, 63% buy food, 56% buy gas and 36% buy lottery tickets. 
