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8:30 AM Friday, September 23, 2005: Time to sell Whole Foods (WFMI). It was now broken its trendline. I should have sold it earlier when it bounced up after buoyant earnings, when it was really overpriced. Now it's just mildly overpriced. Got greedy. Fool.

There is NO security in working for someone else: That may be the biggest lesson America has not learned. Yesterday in Detroit I stood outside an empty, shuttered Montgomery Ward store and pondered how the world had changed. Monky Ward was once a huge retailer. Americans used to relish the arrival of its direct mail catalog. Now it is no more. And today I read in the Wall Street Journal that Sears Holdings Corp. has begun to notify its retirees that it will make further cuts to their medical benefits. Sears cited rising health-care costs and competition from retailers that provide little or no medical coverage to retired employees.

Jobs are aplenty for those who can help people manage their money: That was the headline in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal. Excerpts:
+ Schwab expects all its financial consultants to make at least $150,000 a year.
+ The College for Financial Planning's "2005 Survey of Trends in the Financial Planning Industry" reports that the 2005 median gross income for the financial advisers they surveyed was $277,800 and net income was $153,000.
+ Personal financial advisers are not required to have Series 7 licenses, or any certification at all.

Outlook PST needs to be repaired often: Most of us use Outlook. Over time Outlook's database file -- typically called Outlook.pst -- gets corrupted. It works slower and slower and eventually blows up. You need to repair it once a week. Search your hard drive for a file called Scanpst.exe. Set a shortcut to it. Then start Scanpst. Give it the name and location of your Outlook.pst file. Run the program. It will take a few minutes. If it finds your PST file is corrupted and asks if you want a backup, say NO.

Imax's Magnificent Desolation is boring: Tom Hanks is a space junkie. But his latest movie -- a documentary how 12 men made it to the the moon -- is not interesting or engrossing. Other Imax 3D movies are far more interesting. In fact, 3D done well on a huge screen is enormous fun.

My deal with the airlines: My two Northwest flights to and from Detroit this week were each 1 1/2 hours late. The flight itself is only 1 hour and six minutes. I now have a new deal with airlines:

If I'm late, my plane has left. If I'm on time or early, my plane is delayed.

Stupid blonde joke:
A man sitting next to a beautiful blonde on a plane looked over to see her seemingly in shock from the headline in the newspaper she was holding, which read "12 Brazilian Soldiers Killed in Riots."

She turned toward him and with trembling voice asked "How many is a brazilian?"

Little Old Ladies -- Part 1
An old lady was standing at the railing of the cruise ship holding her hat on tightly so that it would not blow off in the wind. A gentleman approached her and said: "Pardon me, madam. I do not intend to be forward, but did you know that your dress is blowing up in this high wind?"

"Yes, I know." said the lady, "I need both hands to hold onto this hat."

"But, madam, you must know that your privates are exposed!" said the gentleman in earnest.

The woman looked down, then back up at the man and replied, "Sir, anything you see down there is 85 years old. I just bought this hat yesterday"

Little Old Ladies -- Part 2
Ethel and Mabel, two elderly widows, were watching the folks go by from their park bench.

Ethel said, "You know, Mabel, I've been reading this 'Sex and Marriage' book and all they talk about is 'mutual orgasm'. 'Mutual orgasm' here and mutual orgasm' there - that's all they talk about. Tell me, Mabel, when your husband was alive, did you two ever have mutual orgasm?"

Mabel thought for a long while. Finally, she shook her head and said, "No, I think we had State Farm."

Recent column highlights:
+ Blackstone private equity funds. Click here.
+ Manhattan Pharmaceuticals: Click here.
+ NovaDel Biosciences appeals. Click here.
+ Hana Biosciences appeals. Click here.
+ All turned on by biotech. Click here.
+ Steve Jobs Commencement Address. The text is available: Click here. The full audio is available. Click here.
+ The March of the Penguins, an exquisite movie. Click here.
+ When to sell stocks. Click here.

Harry Newton

This column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address is . You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing the Google ads. Thus I cannot endorse any, though some look mighty interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. That money will help pay Claire's law school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.
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