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8:30 AM EST, Friday, September 28, 2007: Claire's wedding is tomorrow. I can barely see my screen for the tears. The relatives have flown in from hither and thither. Apart from the inevitable "You won't believe what the airlines did to us" stories, they all survived. The wedding is in a Western Massachusetts "barn" --- actually a failed farm-converted successful wedding venue. The good news: there won't be a recession in Western Massachusetts this year. The bad news: Harry is providing the deficit financing.

For now, the tech boom continues: A neat portfolio might consist of Anadigics (ANAD), Apple (AAPL), Baidu (BIDU), Cisco (CSCO), EMC, Garmin (GRMN), Google (GOOG), Research in Motion (RIMM), Salesforce.com (CRM), Shutterfly (SFLY), Synchronus Technology (SNCR), VMware (VMW). These guys are in the right place at the right time. Their charts look good.

The children ALL appeared with Thinkpads: Young and old models of the tiny, ultra-portable, ultra-light Lenovo X61s. They all love their machines. Here's the excellent keyboard.

Dumb me. When EWA dropped to $23, I didn't back up the truck and load the boat. Or is it load the truck and back up the boat? Whatever. I ignored the dip. And look now, my favorite Aussie index, has bounced back and is even higher. Buying on the latest dip proved very profitable for more people smarter than me.

Australia continues to boom in all ways. Want more? Back up the truck and I'll dump in latest research on the buoyant Australian economy.

Two professors studied what happened in August -- when stockmarkets blipped and turned squirrelly. The professors figured it was all started by an unknown multibillion-dollar fund unwinding its holdings. They don't know why the fund dumped its holdings. But they sure panicked a lot of people. For the story, click here.

Getting DSL to your country house: If they tell you, you're too far from the telephone company's office, ask them to install a "loop extender." If they don't know what that is, ask them to send me an email.

Revolution in Saudi Arabia? There are stirrings that, one day, women will be allowed to drive a car. Today they have to employ a driver, which is an expensive way to go shopping. From today's New York Times:

Some Saudi officials and religious men agree with the women that Islam does not forbid women to drive. In the past, Saudi women were able to move freely on camel and horseback, and Bedouin women in the desert openly drive pickup trucks far from the public eye.

Clerics and religious conservatives maintain that allowing women to drive would open Saudi society to untold corruption. Women alone in a car, they say, would be more open to abuse, to going wayward, and to getting into trouble if they had an accident or were stopped by the police. The net result would be an erosion of social mores, they say.

The generous children.
A man and his wife were celebrating 50 years together. Their three kids, all very successful, agreed to a Sunday dinner in their honor.

"Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad," gushed son number one. "Sorry I'm running late. I had an emergency at the hospital with a patient. You know how it is, and I didn't have time to get you a gift." "Not to worry," said the father. "The important thing is that we're all together today."

Son number two arrived and announced, "You and Mom look great, Dad. I just flew in from Los Angeles between depositions and didn't have time to shop for you." "It's nothing," said the father. "We're glad you were able to come." Just then the daughter arrived. "Hello and happy anniversary ! I'm sorry but my boss is sending me out of town and I was really busy packing so I didn't have time to get you anything" Again the father said, "I really don't care. At least the five of us are together today."

After they had finished dessert, the father said, "There's something your mother and I have wanted to tell you for a long time. You see, we were very poor. Despite this, we were able to send each of you to college. Throughout the years your mother and I knew that we loved each other very much but we just never found the time to get married."

The three children gasped and said, "You mean we're bastards?"

"Yes," said the father. "And cheap ones, too."

The President goes to Brooklyn
The President turned to one of his advisors, who happened to be Jewish, and asked, "How come Jews are always so well informed?"

Advisor: "What do you mean sir?"

The President: "It just seems that Jews are always up on the latest news. How do they do it?"

Advisor: "An interesting observation. It could be because when Jews go to the synagogue to daven, they always turn to the person sitting next to them and say "Nu?" (What's up?).

The President: "What? Is it that simple?"

Advisor: "I think so sir."

President: "Well, let's put it to the test. Take me to the nearest Synagogue."

The two board a limousine and are driven to the nearest Synagogue. Once inside, the President sits down among the congregation next to an elderly Jewish man. He looks around, then turns to the man and says softly, "Nu?"

The elderly man leans toward him and replies, "You know, I hear the President is going to daven with us today."

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. Please note I'm not suggesting you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Claire's law school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.
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