Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Friday, December 28, 2007
 
Journalist Mistakes Inflation for Interest
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel carries a regrettable story about a little old lady who lost her "life savings" of about $20,000 because she left it in the form of a check in a safe deposit box for 22 years (regrettable both because her life savings was only $20,000 and because she lost it). Tucked inside, we have a stunning display of simplistic Web research and basic misunderstanding of economics:
    Willie Floyd said she hadn't thought about the interest she was losing by not having it in a standard savings account. The interest she would have earned could vary, but a calculator provided online by the Federal Reserve Bank indicates that if she had bought something for $19,700.22 in 1985, it would cost her $38,480.79 to buy the same goods or services, based on the Consumer Price Index.
Bravo, Marie Rohde, your economics teacher must be proud!

You don't have an economics teacher? The deuce you say!


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:51 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
 
Holiday Greetings
Happy Some-Assembly-Required Day.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:45 PM   1 comments
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
 
The Best Christmas Gift Ever!
I have been tagged by a meme! I don't know if I have ever been done so before. Thanks to St. Wendeler of Another Rovian Conspiracy, I've answered the following:
  1. Wrapping or gift bags?
    Gift wrapping. I was a bagger for a couple years in college, so it's hard for me to respect the "effort" required to put something in a bag.

  2. Real or artificial tree?
    I'd prefer real, but the wife is highly allergic, so we have a very realistic artificial tree. So realistic that it drops needles.

  3. When do you put up the tree?
    This year, we put the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving, we put lights on it about two weeks after, and we put ornaments on it about a week and a half later. We wanted to acclimate our child to its presence slowly.

  4. When do you take the tree down?
    Sometime immediately after the first of the year.

  5. Do you like eggnog?
    I did as a child, but I can't stand it now. Maybe I got really drunk from it at age seven, blacked out, and developed the aversion then.

  6. Favorite gift received as a child?
    Commodore 128 received in 8th grade, followed by Atari 2600 I received in 6th grade.

  7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, but we don't put it out because we have cats who would drop it from wherever we would put it onto the aforementioned child.

  8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
    Come on, I don't think there is such a thing as a bad Christmas gift. However, in 2005, I got the Bad Cat desk calendar from my mother in law, and it was so inappropriately not funny that my coworker and I started most weekday mornings groaning over the captioned photographs of cats. The humor relied a lot on drug and sexual innuendo. I thought it was so bad that I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a 2007 version.

  9. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards?
    Mail. E-mail, contrary to what the SEC would have you believe, does not provide permanent artifacts.

  10. Favorite Christmas movie?
    As you know, gentle reader, it is Lethal Weapon; I posted my top five list in 2003.

  11. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
    Whenever I first see something that I think someone I know would like for Christmas. But mostly in October/November.

  12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
    My mother's pumpkin pie. My mother can cook only one or two things well. This is one of them, and it always pushes my gluttony button.

  13. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
    Colored lights this year; I think we used white last year. Whichever I find first, I guess.

  14. Favorite Christmas song?
    I like Mannheim Steamroller's "Deck the Halls" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". Another winter favorite is Dean Martin's "Baby, It's Cold Outside".
I have not, however, tagged anyone else. Sometimes, you can take the Scrooge to the meme, but you cannot make him by a goose for Cratchit.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:01 PM   1 comments
Monday, December 24, 2007
 
Shoulda Been Blogged, Knowing How It'd Make You Feel
A very Perry Christmas:



(Link seen on Nice Deb courtesy of Ace of Spades HQ which I got to from the blogroll on Musings from Brian J. Noggle.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:05 PM   0 comments
Sunday, December 23, 2007
 
With Kindergarten A Few Years Off, I Have Time To Get In Shape
22


(Link seen on Ace of Spades HQ.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:11 AM   1 comments
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."