Turtle Heart Octopus

Iron Maiden. Aren't those guys head bangers and satanists? I guess the first answer is - so what if they were? But more importantly, their music isn't well understood by those who aren't fans. That may sound like a tautology. Isn't that true of most music? Perhaps, but at least with any other popular band, you can say most people have heard enough of their music to decide whether they like it or not. This is less true of Iron Maiden, which gets little radio air play. They get by with concerts and albums. You have to go looking for their music. This is compounded by the fact that those songs which have gotten air play are among their worst. And the worst of the worst is their first number one hit, which they wrote as a joke. Let's go back to 1991. By that time Iron Maiden, which had been around since 1975, was sixteen years old. And yet they'd never had a number one radio hit in the United States. In that year, the producers of Nightmare On Elm Street 5 asked t...

Is home ownership a good investment? I guess it comes down how you define an investment. If an investment is something you put money into hoping to get more money out of it, then no. It's probably one of the worst investments you can make. However, it is still a pretty damn good use of your money if you can swing it. This probably calls for some explanation. Compare home ownership to stocks. Stock purchases should be among the coldest, most rational decisions you make. Run the numbers and make some estimates. Buy the stock if you think it will appreciate over the timeline you're considering. If events prove your assumptions were wrong, sell that sucker. The worst thing you can do is become emotionally attached to a stock. Some people buy Apple because they think it's a money maker. Some buy it because, gosh darn it, they just like the company. Good luck making money off warm feelings. Letting your emotions take over your stock investment strategy will be the death of it....