Sunday sale

Smith and Noble's having a sale kids. Head over to their website and click on the Clearance hot key on the left side of the page. They're also running a delivery promo that's great for a last-minute, pre-holiday pick me up. Order anything from their catalog by 12 November and they guarantee delivery by Thanksgiving.

I hate dealing with window treatments and thanks to the pros at Smith and Noble, I don't have to. They even have a wood and DuraWood blind color matching service. No lie. I can specify a color, say it's Benjamin Moore 1545 --Iron Gate. All I have to do is call them ahead of time, send them a swatch and BAM! two weeks later I have custom-sized wood blinds in a custom color. AND they do if for less money than that Levolor crap at Lowe's. They made a believer out of me.

Saturday stop and think

I've had the Stephen Foster song, Hard Times Come Again No More rattling around in my head these last few days. Foster wrote it in 1854 in reaction to a string of personal setbacks he lived through. There's something about a line the chorus that's always appealed to me, "Many days you have lingered around my cabin door/ oh hard times come again no more." It conjures such an image for me. Anyhow, if you're not familiar with that song here are the lyrics. It could have been written yesterday morning when the Dow dropped below 8000 for the first time in I don't know how many years.

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,

While we all sup sorrow with the poor;

There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;

Oh Hard times come again no more.

Chorus:

Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,

Hard Times, hard times, come again no more

Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;

Oh hard times come again no more.

There's a song, the sigh of the weary,

Hard Times, hard times, come again no more

Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;

Oh hard times come again no more.

(Chorus)

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,

There are frail forms fainting at the door;

Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say

Oh hard times come again no more.

(Chorus)

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,

With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:

Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,

Oh hard times come again no more.

(Chorus)

Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,

Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore

Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave

Oh hard times come again no more.

(Chorus)

And here's what it sounds like. 

People have lived through far worse than what's going on today. We'll get through it and be better off for having done so.

Saturday funnies

Kai Ryssdal is the the host of NPR's Marketplace and is one of my favorite voices in the media. Marketplace makes listening to financial news interesting and occasionally, fun. Last week, the "Marketplace Players" mounted a one-act play to explain the credit collapse of '08. Here it is:

SELLER:[sound of door opening] All right. So glad to hear the Union of Mothers and Nurses Pension Fund is keen to invest with us, Mr. Moron.

BUYER: Actually, That's Mah-RONE.

SELLER: Oh, do pardon me.

BUYER: Happens all the time. Now, we really took a hit when Lead Paint Toyco went under, so we'd like some big, quick returns here.

SELLER: Then have I got the product for you. It's called a reverse sub-micro-standard mortgage shadow security and -- do you hold a degree in rocket science?

BUYER: Nope.

SELLER: Hmm. Well then, simply put, what we do is take semi-insured debts that've been sold to us from inelastic bubble markets, vertically resell, then unbundle the revenues according to Moody's astro-logarithm.

BUYER: Astro ...

SELLER: Astro-logarithm, which gives a monetized valuation that has itself been subdivided into A-3 and G-minus pumpkin patch. You following?
BUYER: Not at all!

SELLER: Great; me neither, really! This thing was invented by some eggheads we keep in a cave.

BUYER: Please, continue.

SELLER: Right. So, I think the Q-grades are dumped and leveraged upwards across 25 underplummeries? Our unicorn gives it a kick, and presto: you've got 300 percent annual growth.

BUYER: Now, you just said "unicorn." There is such a thing?

SELLER: Uhhh. Kind of? Honestly, I don't know. Don't care!

BUYER: Well, you also said "300 percent." So, I'm sold!

SELLER: OK! How much you want?

BUYER: How about far more than we can afford?

SELLER:[HIGH VOICE] Sweet.

BUYER: Great doing business with you, Mr. Exploiter.

SELLER: Actually, that's Ex-PLAH-tee-ay.

BUYER: Whatevs!

More explanations from Marketplace

Please excuse me as I perform another public service, but I firmly believe that what's happening in the financial sector affects all of us in some way or another. It's helpful to know what's at the root of the current financial crisis.

Here's another great Paddy Hirsch video from Marketplace. This time, Hirsch takes on Credit Default Swaps. Credit default swaps are what brought down AIG and the rest of the financial titans who have floundered and collapsed in the last few weeks. This one's ten minutes long, but it's still an entirely watchable explanation of a complex idea that currently wreaking havoc the world over.

Untangling credit default swaps from Marketplace on Vimeo.

Lady Marmoleum

I just got a hot lead on Marmoleum floors by Forbo. Forbo is a Swedish company and they've been making Marmoleum for the last 100 years. Generically, Marmoleum is linoleum; the original resilient floor. It's making a serious comeback due to the innovations and energetic marketing of the Forbo company.

In Forbo's capable hands, linoleum branded as Marmoleum is fresh, new and dare I say it? Hip.

I mean, look at this stuff. Lower East Side tenements do not come to mind when I see these photos and I understand why Forbo dispensed with the word linoleum.

Marmoleum is hip and now because it's bright and new, but it's also hip and now because it's green and sustainable. It's made today the way it was always made. From linseed oil, wood flour and rosins that are pressed into a jute backing. It's non-toxic, VOC-free, biodegradable when the time comes and virtually indestructible until then.

Due to its linseed oil content, it gets harder the longer its exposed to air and it's also naturally anti-microbial. What's not to love?

You can find local sources for Marmoleum through Forbo's website. If your market's anything like mine, it's not too tough to find. You can expect to pay between $5.50 and $7.50 a square foot for materials.