The SoapBoxers

We’re pleased to announce the addition of Jonna Wibelius to the staff of The Soap Boxers.  Jonna will write a monthly column that shares her thoughts of a US or world event from the perspective of an internation observer.  Jonna does not profess to be an expert on world affairs, and this is one of the reasons we wanted her to fill this role.  She will give the viewpoint of how an average citizen in another country may view an event.

Jonna is originally from Sweden,  but has also lived in England, Australia, Finland, and China.  Her current long-term base of operations is in China, but she is in Finland this summer.  Jonna details her adventures in China (and, now, in Finland) in her blog SHEinChina.

The Soap Boxers published a review of SheInChina back in May.

Catch Jonna’s columns beginning in August.

With the slotting of the weekly columns on Wednesday, Wednesday Wisps are probably going to be few and far between. Until the schedule is completely shaken out, Saturday Stew will take its place. Just like Wednesday Wisps, there will be a bunch of small ideas in the stew.

Baseball

Hermsen

Twins prospect B.J. Hermsen grew up a hop, skip, and a jump from my hometown. Iowa is, I’m fairly certain, the only state that has summer baseball for high schoolers – other states have it in the spring. This makes is fairly unusual for Iowa kids to get drafted very high, because they peak later than the other players, simply because the schedule is later (in fact, the season is still ongoing when the MLB draft occurs).

Last year, Hermsen dropped to the 6th round. He likely would have been picked higher, but he was also a stud quarterback in football, and there was uncertainty that he would sign. Well, the Twins offered him $650,000 and Hermsen signed.

At long last, Hermsen made his minor league debut on June 24. How did he do? He tossed six perfect innings. The bullpen closed the deal and they finished with a combined no hitter. Not a bad debut. Hermsen probably hated to come out of the game, but as a young kid who almost certainly was on a pitch count, the Twins front office probably would have fired the manager if he had pushed him too far in his pro debut!

How did he do for an encore? Not bad – he allowed 2 runs (1 earned), 4 hits, and a walk in 5 1/3 innings – pushing his ERA up to 0.79 for the season.

Hynick

And speaking of great pitching performances, Rockies farmhand Brandon Hynick was the Pacific Coast League pitcher of the week for the week ending July 5. He pitched in one game during the week, and threw a 7 inning perfect game. The teams were completing a suspended game that day, as well as playing another game, hence the shorter games (it is relatively common for minor league teams to play 7 inning games when there is a double header). It still counted as an official game, though – the 9th perfect game in the storied history of the PCL. The kicker? He did it at home, in the sky high altitude of Colorado Springs. If you think the air in Denver is thing, go to Colorado Springs some time!

Bluffer vs. Bargain

In January, I wrote an article entitled The Bluffer and the Bargain, highlighting Jason Varitek and Andruw Jones.  The gist is that I thought Varitek had overplayed his hand and that Jones  was a great pickup for the money, since the Dodgers were picking up nearly all his salary.

Nearly six months later, how are these guys doing?

Varitek is actually having a pretty good year, with  12 homers and a .825 OPS (through July 7).  This means I’m wrong, right?  Well, no.  In January, I said that he had put himself in a bad position by declining arbitration and would likely not sign for more than $5 million – half his 2008 salary.  What did he sign for – $5 million.  And most people felt that the Red Sox could have squeezed him a bit more.

Andruw Jones signed a $500K deal with the Rangers (don’t feel too bad for him, as the Dodgers are also paying him the remainder of a 2 year, $36 million deal he signed befor the 2008 season).  Jones has been a part time player and has been a bit up and down over the course of the season.  As I write this article on July 8, Jones just launched his 3rd homer o the game – bringing his season total to 14 homers in 160 at bats.  Bear in mind that a lot of players have around 300 at bats already.  This is great production from a $500K player.  Well played, Rangers.

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson died with  a reported $400 million in debt, but also with substantial assets, including the rights to his own music and the music of other artists (including a share in the music of The Beatles).

I have a thought on a way for the estate to raise cash on pay off the debt.  Incorporate the major assets – form Michael Jackson Entertainment, Inc.  Then have an IPO.  Jackson fans – as well as other investors – could own a share of Jackson’s assets.  With the outpouring we have seen since Jackson’s death, what sort of money could an IPO raise?

Cars

I was discussing the auto industry with a friend of mine as we enjoyed lunch at the outside grill at Nelson’s Deli in Cedar Rapids (great burgers and brats!).  I began the conversation with this rather unconventional thought – “If we took all the money that was spent on research and development and infrastructure for cars and planes, we could build a nationwide teleporter network.  We’d only need one pod  per city block, since they would only be in use for a few seconds at a time.”

After Dave nearly spit Coke all over the table, he countered with a rational idea.  “How much cheaper would cars be if they didn’t include a warranty?”  At first, this seems like a crazy idea.  Who would buy a car without a warranty?  Warranties are a big reason why people buy new cars.

But take a deeper look at this.  Warranties, of course, are not free.  Car companies build the cost of warranty repairs into the cost of the car.  Basically, you are paying for the expected average cost of warranty repairs.  That doesn’t sound too bad, right?  Except that since warranty work can only be performed at authorized dealers, they’re building in the cost of dealership labor and OEM parts!  If you’re like me, you know a guy who can fix things with cheaper, non-OEM parts, as well as cheaper labor.  And my guy is just as good as the dealer (in some cases, clearly better than the dealer).

I don’t see this idea actually gaining any traction at all, simply due to the huge financial risk when it comes to cars.  Perhaps, though, there’s room for a warranty that only covers major repairs – perhaps with a $500 deductible.  How much money would this shave off the sticker price?

(Some of you already have sneak preview copies of the eBook … sorry, no new content for you today.  Read a few more stories in the book, if you haven’t finished.)

Note – this is a partial story – regular visitors will be able to access the full story – instructions at the bottom.

Key Relationships

Zach hefted his suitcase to the top of the stairs and rang the bell. He had packed a lot more than he typically would for such a short trip, but Kevin and Robyn had been very secretive about the details. All he knew is that they were leaving on Friday morning and returning late in the day on Sunday. They had been told to pack for any situation, so Zach had packed a mixture of casual and dress clothes.

Zach heard the distinctive clicking sound of high-heeled shoes crossing the hardwood floor toward the door. Robyn opened the door and invited him in.

“Hey, Zach, come on in and grab a seat. Now that everyone is here, we can get started.”
Zach was pleasantly surprised to see that his friends had left the comfy brown recliner unoccupied. These guys were the absolute best. He settled into the chair and Kevin started to talk.

“OK, guys. Robyn and I promised you a fun trip this weekend. Well, that’s somewhat true. There will actually be three trips this weekend, though, instead of just one.”

Zach was a bit confused. A quick glance around the room confirmed that he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t following along. Brooke gave him a quizzical look from the couch. Zach could only shrug his shoulders in response.

…

How do you like the story so far?

This particular story will NOT be available on the blog!  It will only be available as part of an eBook that I am giving away to my most valued regular readers.  Don’t worry, it does not cost any money, not do you have to give up any personal information.

If you are a regular reader through the web site, look up at the blue bar at the top of the screen.  You should see the text “Free eBook” toward the right edge of the bar.  If you don’t see this, then you’re just a wee bit shy of being a “regular reader”.

If you are an RSS subscriber, look at the bottom of this story.  You will see a “Free eBook of short stories” link directly to the left of the copyright notice.

Clicking on either of this links will get you to the correct page to download the eBook.  The eBook contains sixteen stories.  Fifteen of the stories have been featured on The Soap Boxers.  The first story in the eBook – Key Relationships – cannot be found on the blog, and it is much longer than any of the stories that have appeared in the blog (24 pages long, in fact).

I hope you enjoy the eBook!

If you aren’t a regular visitor, you can get the eBook by simply subscribing to the RSS feed – or simply look around the site and read a few stories.  Before long, we’ll think of you as a regular visitor.

If you run into any problems, just send me an email at kosmo@observingcasually.com

In the wake of the Madoff and Stanford scams, “Ponzi Scheme” is a term that gets thrown around a lot.  A Ponzi Scheme is a fraud in which one set of investors is paid off with money collected from the next set of investors.  In other words, I take $10 from Amos on Monday.  I take $10 from Bob and Barb on Tuesday and use this money to pay interest to Amos.  I take $10 from Chris, Casey, and Clara and Wednesday and use this money to pay interest to Bob and Barb.  Everything works very nicely as long as each successive group of investors is larger than the next (or until the authorities figure out what is going on).  Ponzi schemes can expand more rapidly when investors reinvest their profits rather than collecting them in cash.

The Ponzi Scheme  is named after its most famous perpetrator, Charles Ponzi.  Today, I’ll tell you a bit about Charles Ponzi.  However, the accuracy of the information is questionable, mostly because Charles Ponzi deviated from the truth quite often, and it could be difficult to separate his lies from the truth.

Ponzi was born in Italy in 1882 and immigrated to the United States in 1903.  When the ship arrived in Boston, he had just $2.50 in his pocket.  You shouldn’t feel sorry for young Mr. Ponzi, though – the reason why he had so little money is because he had gambled away the rest of his savings during the journey across the ocean.

Ponzi worked odd jobs, eventually landing a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant.  Ponzi worked his way up to being a waiter, and things were beginning to look up for him.  Unfortunately, Ponzi was supplementing his income by short-changing the customers and stealing from the restaurant.  His employer was not pleased with this behavior, and Ponzi was jobless.

Ponzi moved to Canada and became an assistant bank teller at a bank in Montreal.  The smooth talking Ponzi worked himself up to bank manager.  Unfortunately, this job ended when the bank went belly up and the bank’s owner fled to Mexico with the remainder of the bank’s assets.

Ponzi was nothing if not resourceful, though.  He wrote himself a check from the checkbook of a former customer of the bank and quickly found himself behind bars.

After getting out of prison in 1911, Ponzi moved back to the United States, where he was soon arrested for his involvement in a plan to smuggle illegal Italian immigrants into the country.  (Hey, is anyone else noticing that Ponzi is building a rather lengthy rap sheet?)

Interestingly, Ponzi’s trademark criminal endeavor had its roots in one of the few legal ideas Ponzi ever had.

Ponzi became aware of an International Reply Coupon.  These don’t exist any more, but I’ll try to explain them.  Basically, if you were in the United States and wanted to send a letter to Italy, you might purchase an International Reply Coupon (IRC) to include with your letter.  Your Italian recipient would use the IRC as postage.  Essentially, this was courtesy similar to sending a self addressed stamped envelope today.

The aspect that interested Ponzi is that IRCs were purchased at the postage rate in the purchaser’s country, but could be used for postage in any country, even if the postage rate in that country was higher.  For example, let’s say that postage in Italy was 25 cents and postage in the US was 50 cents.  Someone in Italy could buy an IRC for 25 cents and include it in a letter to the US.  The US recipient could then use the IRC for postage, even though US postage was 50 cents.

Ponzi’s plan was to purchase IRC in countries where they were priced low and sell them in countries where they were priced high.  For example, purchase 1000 IRCs in Italy at 25 cents each ($250) and sell them in the US for 50 cents each ($500) – a tidy profit on your investment.  This is a concept called arbitrage and it is perfectly legal.  (For the Seinfeld fans among you, this may conjur memories of Kramer and Newman making a run to Michigan with a mail truck full of aluminum cans).

Ponzi had his relatives in Italy purchase IRCs.  Ponzi ran into difficulties attempting to redeem the coupons, and eventually stopped handling the coupons at all.  However, he told everyone that his company was indeed buying and selling the international reply coupons and making a sizeable profit – but the redemption method was a secret.  Ponzi would make you 50% profit in 45 days or 100% in 90 days.  The early investors reaped big profits and told their friends, those friends told others, and the scheme was off and running.  At its peak, the scheme was taking in $250,000 per day – in 1920 dollars!

Were some folks skeptical of Ponzi’s promises?  Yes, of course.  When a writer claimed that such returns could not possibly be achieved from legal activities, Ponzi sued him for libel – and won a $500,000 judgment! 

Eventually, all good things must come to an end.  The Boston Post hired Charles Barron (the man whose name adorns a financial magazine to this day) to investigate Ponzi.  Barron’s findings?  That 160 million IRC must be in circulation in order for Ponzi’s claims to be mathematically possible.  Unfortunately, only 27,000 actually were in circulation – and the US government indicated that there was no unusual activity with IRCs.  Clearly, Ponzi was not telling the truth.  The Post won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing Ponzi’s scheme.

When Ponzi’s scheme eventually imploded, he took down six banks.

Ponzi was sentenced to five years on federal charges of mail fraud (for sending information to investors through the mail) and served three and a half years.  He then faced state charges in Massachusetts for larceny.  The slick talking (and broke) Ponzi acted as his own attorney.  In his first trial, he won an acquittal on ten charges.  A subsequent trial resulted in a conviction on five other charges, and Ponzi was sentenced to serve between seven and nine years.

While on bail, Ponzi attempted to sell Florida swamp land to investors.  He jumped bail on that charge and attempted to flee to US by ship.  He was captured in New Orleans and was sent back to Massachusetts to serve out his prison term of seven years – interestingly, with no additional prison time for jumping bail.

After Ponzi was released in 1934, the US government had him deported to Italy as an undesirable alien – it turns out that Ponzi had never actually become a citizen.  Benito Mussolini gave Ponzi a job in the finance section of the government.  (Seriously, Mussolini – are you reading the papers?)  Ponzi eventually (gasp!) fled the country with money from the Italian treasury.

Ponzi died in poverty and poor health in Rio de Janeiro in 1949.

Wikipedia was a source for this article.

 As this is my first article for this wonderful site I will keep the writing general in order to introduce my point of view to all of our readers and open discussion.  Future articles will focus on specific events in the news.  First off, my views are not a commentary on any of the religions that are involved in the conflict in the Middle East as even though I believe the conflict does stem from religious differences it also stems from man’s ultimate love and struggle for power.

In my opinion the crisis in the Middle East has been miss managed for years by virtually any government that has gotten involved as some basic fundamental understanding of the situation is missing.  Perhaps understanding may even be a strong word as these players do understand what is going on but politically and in public they cannot admit to it.  Here in my mind are the basics which drive the conflict.

One, a majority of the conflict is driven by a minority of extremists who have been very effective in using the media to portray their views as a majority view.  Two, it has to be recognized that the minority from the Muslim side that is driving this extremist view has a very simple agenda which is to eliminate Israel from the face of the planet.  This is in their doctrines, it is their mission statement (loosely using that term) and it is the political agenda that gives them power in the region.  Three, the conflict has nothing to do with a few miles of land.

These three points demonstrate why a majority of the efforts to solve the Middle East feuds have failed.  In short, organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas are extremists groups that have legitimized themselves by creating a political agenda whose only mission it to eliminate Israel.  While this mission is masked by cries of freedom for the Palestinians and cries of Israeli oppression the truth is that these organizations need the conflict to continue in order to maintain political importance till they can achieve their mission.  That leads to the root cause of the failures of the past.  All the relevant players have concentrated on appeasement of these extremist organizations in order to sacrifice a little for the greater good of ending the conflict.  But if the conflict were to end in any peaceful scenario then the big losers would be these organizations.  Why?  Well for one they would fail in their mission to destroy Israel and two they would lose political relevance in their countries as the governments would be forced to get back to dealing with financial, educational and health issues within their countries which they do not want to do.

In closing, I believe the issues in the Middle East are not very well understood by most Americans and much of Europe is very anti conflict and therefore has taken on this idea of appeasement is the way to end all conflicts.  In fact, I believe this conflict is best ended with military action and just as the US discovered a while back that you don’t negotiate with terrorists the world has to recognize that this is the same policy you need to have with extremists groups such as Hamas.  Lastly, I think the media has done a huge disservice by miss reporting on the issues and the nature of the conflict and with this actually fueling the conflict.  I realize my views may be a bit extreme for the majority of our readers but I will try and demonstrate their merits in future more specific articles.

Enjoy,

Peter Rabbit

In addition to the changes announced last weekend, we’ve added a couple more writers to the staff.

• James Bathgate will be writing a monthly column on technology.
• Gabe Tyndal will be writing a monthly column on science and nature.

We’re still looking to round out the staff. We’re looking for these roles:

• A weekly entertainment writer – to write about new movies, books, video games, leisure activities.
• A weekly writer who writes about issues from a woman’s perspective. The role is fairly flexible at this point. Currently, every writer we have is male, and we are looking for something that will bring a fresh viewpoint.
• A monthly writer who will give an opinion of US and world events from an international point of view. We are looking for someone who is a native of a country in Europe, Asia, Africa, or Australia. We are NOT looking for a US citizen living abroad. If English is not your primary language, do not allow this to become an obstacle – we can work with you to edit your article.

We are pursuing specific people for each of these roles, but do not currently have firm commitments.

If you’re interested, send an email to kosmo@observingcasually.com. Note that you would not be paid for your work, but there would be future profit sharing, if and when profits occurs. More details via email.

OK, so what the heck are we doing with all the changes?

The goal of The Soap Boxers is to be a source for a variety of different topics. news, sports, science, technology, politics, entertainment, international viewpoints, fiction and more. We style ourselves after a magazine such as The New Yorker or Reader’s Digest or a newspaper such as USA Today. Flip through our pages and you’ll see a wide variety of interesting articles – not just articles one particular topic.  We eventually reached a point where one or two writers couldn’t cover the variety of topics we wanted to cover.

For those of you who have been loyal readers – we thank you for your support. These changes are designed to bring new content that is more rich and diverse that it has been in the past. We hope you enjoy the new topics and the new writers!

The schedule may change a bit, but this is the current schedule:

• Monday: News
• Tuesday: Sports
• Wednesday: Monthly columns (politics, technology, science/nature, world view)
• Thursday: People, places, history
• Friday: Fiction Friday
• Saturday: Flex topic
• Sunday: Canada

As covered last week by yours truly, the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Championship lived up to all the hype.  Joey Chestnut became a three time champ downing a new world record 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes.  Amazing.

Tiger Woods outdueled the field and won for the third time this year.  Hunter Mahan threw an impressive final round 62 at Eldrick at Congressional, but it was not enough. Woods had his game face on all day and won for the third time this year.  He heads to the Open Championship in two weeks and if he can play like this should be considered the favorite..then again…when isn’t he?

Tragedy hits the NFL.  Seems like we have been talking too much lately about untimely deaths of popular figures of American culture.  The more details that are coming out the less the local community feels like they really knew Steve McNair.

Roger Federer wins an unprecedented 15 grand slam title.  While last years match was considered “the greatest game ever played” we do not seem to be hearing the same talk this year about this 2009 version of the Mens’ Wimbledon Final.  Roddick and Federer went more games this year than Nadal v. Federer last year.  Nike wasted no time in having a smooth looking velveteen jacket that was gold and white with a nice “F”  on the front and a smooth number 15 on the back…..wonder how long it will be before that is outdated?

Lance Armstong is making a comeback to vie for the Tour de France this year after retiring some years ago.  The seven time winner finds himself in 3rd place behind current leader Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland just 40 seconds behind.  Can  Livestrong continue this feat and win an 8th Tour?  Either way it will be an amazing story and it will be especially with the French Media, who has looked for every possible angle to try an diminish the great cyclists record in this prestigious event.

For you fantasy geeks out there remember that most Fantasy Football drafts are just around the corner.  Many of my co-workers are already buying magazines and laying out the big plans for the boys bachelor party weekend…errrrr…Draft Collaboration.  It is truly amazing how much wasted efficiencies are realized each year by millions of workers surfing the net and trying to figure out who is a better pick, Adrian Peterson or Michael Turner.  Count me among those that love the fantasy leagues and the draft parties.  I am just not a rabid fan as many I know.  Look for some upcoming fantasy football articles from the Goodman file later this year.

In college sports news “of sorts”  The University of Nebraska allowed comedian, Larry the Cable Guy, to perform a 4th of July concert at Memorial Stadium.  This is big news to those of us here in Nebraska as the last time a “non-football” event was held at Memorial Stadium was the Farm Aid concert some time in the 1980’s.  The only reason that year the University allowed the Farm Aid concert was because they were going to tear up and replace all of the Astroturf in the stadium.  Larry who is a native Nebraskan, charged a whopping $4-$6 dollars for tickets depending on seating and where you purchased them.  You can catch the action on Comedy Central likely in a month or two as the event was taped to be shown on TV at a later time.  Nice Job packing the house with over 50,000 who watched the concert this past Saturday.

Until Next week….GIT – R- DONE!

There were a couple of articles this weekend, including a short story on Friday.  If you have been out of town, make sure to scroll down and catch up on the last few editions of The Soap Boxers.

There were two big stories that broke during the weekend.  They were were the death of former NFL player Steve McNair and Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s announcement that she will resign as governor by the end of the month.

McNair

McNair and his girlfriend were found shot to death in his girlfriend’s condo in Nashville.  McNair had been shot multiple times, including once in the head.  His girlfriend had been shot once in the head, and the gun was found near her body.  At the time I am writing this, the police would not speculate on what occurred, but they did say that they were not actively looking at suspects.  From these pieces of information, however, the likely scenario is that McNair’s girlfriend shot him before turning the gun on herself.  Certainly more information will be released in the coming days.

McNair played college football for division 1-AA Alcorn State.  1-AA (now referred to as FCS) is a rung below the “major” college programs of division 1-A (referred to as FBS).  Few 1-AA player ever get the chance to play in the NFL.  McNair was a man among boys in college, however, and proved that he belonged with the big boys.  Despite the fact that he had not played against top level competition in college, McNair was the #3 overall pick in the 1994 draft by the Houston Oilers (who later became the Tennessee Titans).

McNair fought many injuries during his career, but still ended up with more than 30,000 passing yards and 3500 rushing yards.  McNair was a 3 time Pro Bowl player, won an MVP award (shared with Peyton Manning), and got the Titans to within one yard of a Super Bowl title following the 1999 season.  In the process, he tore down many barriers that had been put in the path of African American quarterbacks.

Palin

On Friday, Sarah Palin announced that she was stepping down as governor of Alaska, saying that she did not want to be a lame duck, and once again saying that she has been the victim of a double standard regarding her treatment by the press.

Palin, of course, did not face an issue of term limits, so she was the person who labeled herself a lame duck.  The deadline for filing for the next gubernatorial election is nearly a year away, so she could have easily kept her plans close to the vest until then, and avoided lame duck status.

As for Palin saying that she was been treated unfairly by the media, and that a male would not have been treated a harshly – I do not buy this argument.  Certainly the conservative wing of the media attacked Barack Obama on several issues that were of less importance than the ethics complaints surrounding Palin.  When Palin was announced as McCain’s running mate, many in the media (and many outside the media, such as myself) were stunned at the choice.  Some felt that the choice of Palin was an attempt to draw female voters who had previously supported Hilary Clinton – a strategy that had little chance of working, considering the major ideological difference between Clinton and Palin.  Palin clearly had some baggage attached to her, and many people felt that this baggage would drag down the ticket.  However you might feel about the issues that surrounded Palin, I think that it is quite logical to suggest that she was indeed a drag on the ticket and was a major reason why McCain performed poorly on election day.

What’s next for Sarah Palin?  Your guess is as good as mine.  She may be finished with politics, or she end up as a presidential candidate in 2012.  The Republican Party probably does not want her on the ticket in 2012.  Although she might have a reasonable chance of winning the Republican nomination, her inability to garner necessary votes from the centrists would make it difficult for her to win the general election.  The fact that she is resigning as governor will likely be used against her by opponents who will portray her as a quitter who quits when the going gets tough.

A possible, albeit strange, strategy?  Palin takes on Republican senator Lisa Markowski in 2010, and then uses Washington D.C. as the base of operations for a 2012 presidential run.  This would be considerably more convenient than using Alaska as her base.  The sheer distance of Alaska from the rest of the country would force her to either miss important events or cause her to be away from her job as governor.

The only problem with this plan?  Murkowski would probably beat her in the primary.

UPDATE: Palin’s attorney is warning the media, indication that legal action will be pursued against reports who say that Palin is stepping down because she is the subject of a federal investigation.  This is the first I had heard about a possible federal investigation – and if Governor Palin’s attorneys are reading this, I am not suggesting that this is why she is stepping down 🙂

FURTHER UPDATE: The FBI confirms that they are NOT investigating Palin.

OK, I said I wasn’t going to post any article this weekend, but here is a short one.

Back On April 15, we launched a Stock Market contest (click link to see insights from the participants) in which a team of Goliaths (personal finance bloggers) were matched up against a team of Davids (people who were not personal finance bloggers). At the end of May, the Dow stood at 8500.33 and had gained average 12.34 points during the course of the contest, making the Davids the favorites.

The market tried to tread water in June, however, closing the month down 53.33 points at 8447.00.  Once again, we’ll project the Dow’s year end close, assuming a linear trend.

At the end of the day on April 14th (the 104th day of the year), the Dow was at 7920.18.

At the end of the day on June 30 (the 181st day of the day), the Dow was at 8500.33

This is a gain of 526.82, or 6.84 points per day. If we assume that the market will contain to gain at exactly the same rate throughout the rest of the year (yes, a ridiculous assumption), the Dow will be at 9185.58 at the end of the year.

How do our contestants stack up?

I also invited visitors to play along at home. Let’s see how they are doing.

At this point, team David is still in the lead, but the fact that the Dow was down for the month of June has allowed team Goliath to get much closer.  Check back next month for the next update.

Note: there will be no new articles on Saturday or Sunday.  We will resume our regular schedule on Monday.  Scroll down to see the Fiction Friday story “Check, Mate” from earlier today.

In an effort to continually improve the product that we bring to you, we don’t let the grass grow under our feet.    We have several staff changes to announce, and hope to announce more in the coming days.  My long term goal for the magazine is to develop something that gives readers the variety of articles that the see in The New Yorker

Staff changes

• Entertainment Editor Bob Inferapels, has been waylaid by “life” and has notified us that he will not be able to contribute on a weekly basis.  We are, however, keeping him on board as a contributor.  We hope to see more of his articles in the future, and perhaps a return to a larger role at some point.
• To bring non-U.S. viewpoint to The Soap Boxers, we are pleased to announce a Canadian presence on the staff.  Tyson Turner will write a weekly column on Sundays.  His primary focus will be the issues, events, and places that are prominent in the lives of Canadians.
• Peter Rabbit will become a contributor on a monthly basis.  Peter will focus on politics and international issues.

What are we looking for?

We are still looking to add some writers to our team.  We are looking to fill several gaps in our coverage.  Could you be the right candidate?

• All of the current staff writers and contributors are male.  We would like to include a female writer on the staff, in order  to bring a different perspective.  Essentially, I’m looking for a softer, feminine edge to the blog one day a week.  If you are interested in this role, but don’t want to do an article every week, contact me anyway.  I could set up some sort of rotation if we have multiple people interested.  This is the only weekly spot I am looking for fill.  The other roles would all be once a month, or less often.
• Since a significant portion of our readers are from outside of the United States,  I would like to include some international contributors to write about one article per month.  In particular, I would like to  like to engage some folks from Africa or Asia.  If English is not your first language, don’t let this discourage you – I can edit your article to remove any awkward spots.
• Do you have an interesting role within our society?  College student?  Fireman?  Aspiring actress?  I’d love to see some article about your experiences.
• Are you a senior citizen who would like to tell people about things that happened when you were younger?
• Are you a poet or a cartoonist?  Perhaps we could feature some of your work.
• Articles will typically be in the range of 500 – 800 words.  We’re looking for opinions, in addition to facts.  Anyone can go to an encyclopedia for the facts – but only you can give your opinion.
• Reliability is key.  I understand missing an occasional deadline, but if you miss four deadlines in a row, that can be disruptive to the schedule.

Benefits

Why would you want to want to write for The Soap Boxers?

• Money – Well, this probably isn’t the right reason.  When profits emerge, I’ll share proportionally, after covering overhead costs (I can discuss this more deeply if you have sincere interest – it’s actually fairly simple).  At this point, we haven’t turned that corner, so don’t make money the reason why you would join the staff.
• Audience – You would have a built in audience from day 1.  We don’t have a huge audience, but it is steadily growing, and we do have a core group of folks who come back every day.  If you’re thinking about blogging, but don’t want to blog to an open room, this opportunity gives you and audience from the beginning.  If you later decide to launch your own blog, go ahead and jump ship – certainly some of the audience will also read your new blog.  If you decide that blogging isn’t for you, you can step away easily.
• Easy – You don’t have to know anything at all about blogging.  If you’re familiar with WordPress, I can get you up and have you compose articles on the site.  If you’d prefer to just email me your work, that’s also fine.  All you need to do to do is write.
• Resume builder – Will writing for us ensure that you get your dream job when you apply?  Of course not – but it’s something interesting to mention during interviews.  There are a lot of skills that come into play, such as meeting deadlines and working with minimal supervision.
• You get to work alongside a guy who uses lots of bulleted lists.  Talk about a barrel of fun!

What’s next?

• OK, so you’re interested.  What are the next steps?
• Send me an email at kosmo@ObservingCasually.com.  Tell me what sort of position you are interest in, describe your qualifications, and include a writing sample (this may be a link to a web page where you have some of your work).
• I will take a look at your work, compare it to the other submissions I receive, and decide if you are a good fit for a recurring column.  Even if you aren’t selected for a recurring column, I may be able to use your work on an occasional basis.

The process will be relatively painless, I promise.  I’m a very easygoing person, and I’m not going to rake you over the coals.  If I don’t think we’re a good fit, I’ll tell you that and move on.

Thanks for reading!