Yes

CNN.com wants to know:

After you vote, be sure to pick up your favorite copy of the latest National Enquirer from the nearest grocery. Read up. As an American, you have a duty to keep yourself informed of the most important headlines.

In high spirits, full of health, humor, and good will toward men, we went out to find Book Ends for our newly built shelves. A fine Sunday afternoon activity. We descended upon the Meyerland Mall:

1st Stop: JC Penny

• To a capable looking clerk behind the counter:
• “Hello. Mightn’t you carry Book Ends?”
  “No. Well, let me check. No.”
  “Thanks!”

2nd Stop: Bed Bath and Beyond

• Wander through store for 5 minutes without spotting the goods. Encounter a wandering clerk with unkempt hair:
• “Hello. Do you have any Book Ends?”
  “No. Those things you put on the ends of books to keep them from falling down, right? No, don’t have ‘em.”
  “Thank you. Goodbye.”

3rd Stop: Borders

• To a clerk behind the counter who could’ve used more sun and less books:
• “Hi there. Book Ends, perchance?”
  “No.”
  “All righty then. “

4th Stop: Target

• Wander through store. We do not find any Book Ends. Encounter a young, sleepy girl with a Target name badge pushing a cart full of things. Her mouth does not open very much as she talks.
• “Hello. Don’t suppose you carry book ends, hm? You know, those things you put on the ends of books to keep them from falling over.”
  “No.”
  “Huh.”
  “Book Ends are season items, so we don’t carry them now.”
  “Seasonal items?”
  “Yeah. We had some a long time ago, but I haven’t seen them recently.”
  “Thank you.”

We are back home now. We do not have any Book Ends. They are seasonal items. We shall have to wait for the right season.

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

–Calvin Coolidge

A good part of life is dirt. An equally good part of life is our ability to get dirty sometimes. And finally, a good attribute of someone is a willingness to occasionally get dirty. God made dirt and mud, and he also put it pretty much everywhere outside, and I’d venture to say he didn’t mess up by making it sticky.

Perhaps a syllogism of sorts would work, with obvious assumptions made within the premises:

1) Dirt exists.
2) Food grows in dirt.
3) Pretty things also grow in dirt, like grass and colorful plants.
4) People need food and plants for existence and enjoyment.
5) Worms live in dirt, and worms make great fish bait.
6) Dirt is great for digging holes in.

Therefore:
7) Dirt is Excellent.

Not exactly impeccable logic from a technical standpoint, but the fact remains: dirt is good.

Consequently, it is silly to fuss and splutter about getting dirty or having muddy shoes. Perhaps it would not be advisable to don one’s best suit or dress and proceed to the nearest mud hole with intent to frolic therein, but otherwise, dirt is hardly the disgusting criminal that so many groans and mutterings seem to indicate. Wash it off and sweep it up. It is only doing its job by occasionally sticking to your feet and clothes.

God intended for dirt to be dirty and mud to be sticky. He also made it so that we would have to wash ourselves off after having worked in the dirt. But that shouldn’t make dirt and mud disgusting. There is, after all, something therapeutic (and morally reminiscent) about taking a shower.

Here is a great article about investing from a behavioral standpoint. Very good to read for investors — and non-investors, too! — as it primarily addresses dangerous habits and emotions that are common with money management.

The article is by Cathy Pareto and is here. For those who don’t want to read the whole thing, here are some excellent morsels:

—————–

In 2001 Dalbar, a financial-services research firm, released a study entitled Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior, which concluded that average investors fail to achieve market-index returns. It found that in the 17-year period to Dec 2000, the S&P 500 [mutual fund benchmark] returned an average of 16.29% per year, while the typical equity investor achieved only 5.32% for the same period – a startling 9% difference!

Why does this happen? There are a myriad of possible explanations.

Regret Theory: Fear-of-Regret, or simply regret, theory deals with the emotional reaction people experience after realizing they’ve made an error in judgment. Faced with the prospect of selling a stock, investors become emotionally affected by the price at which they purchased the stock. So, they avoid selling it as a way to avoid the regret of having made a bad investment, as well as the embarrassment of reporting a loss. We all hate to be wrong, don’t we?

Mental Accounting: Humans have a tendency to place particular events into mental compartments, and the difference between these compartments sometimes impacts our behavior more than the events themselves. Say, for example, you aim to catch a show at the local theater, and tickets are $20 each. When you get there you realize you’ve lost a $20
bill. Do you buy a $20 ticket for the show anyway? Behavior finance has found that roughly 88% of people in this situation would do so. Now, let’s say you paid for the $20 ticket in advance. When you arrive at the door, you realize your ticket is at home. Would you pay $20 to purchase another? Only 40% of respondents would buy another. Notice, however, that in both scenarios you’re out $40: different scenarios, same amount of money, different mental compartments. Pretty silly, huh?

Prospect/Loss-Aversion Theory: It doesn’t take a neurosurgeon to know that people prefer a sure investment return to an uncertain one – we want to get paid for taking on any extra risk. That’s pretty reasonable.

Prospect theory also explains why investors hold onto losing stocks: people often take more risks to avoid losses than to realize gains. For this reason, investors willingly remain in a risky stock position, hoping the price will bounce back. Gamblers on a losing streak will behave in a similar fashion, doubling up bets in a bid to recoup what’s already been lost.

Over-/Under-Reacting: Investors get optimistic when the market goes up, assuming it will continue to do so. Conversely, investors become extremely pessimistic amid downturns. A consequence of anchoring, placing too much importance on recent events while ignoring historical data, is an over- or under-reaction to market events which results in prices falling too much on bad news and rise too much on good news

Overconfidence: People generally rate themselves as being above average in their abilities. They also overestimate the precision of their knowledge and their knowledge relative to others. Many investors believe they can consistently time the market. But in reality there’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that proves otherwise. Overconfidence results in excess trades, with trading costs denting profits.