It is a glorious thing, to watch a train being pulled by a steam locomotive of any size, and at any speed, but especially large ones, and at high speeds. I am also able to relate to the reader, that riding in the cab of such a large engine running at high speed is an […]

Just imagine an imaginary, well publicized and advertised, un-backed by anything, and very popular coin, going from $90,000, down to $16,000, in a matter of weeks.  That coin is called ‘crypto,’ meaning ’fake,’ and its name is “Bitcoin.”  I have written about this fraud a couple of times in the past two years, and what […]

(This is part of chapter 21 in my 35-year old book: “I Hold These Truths.”  Been re-printed four times, and no longer available) I recently sat in my favorite chair, and looked around me, thinking of the origins of all the things I know so well:  The furniture, wallpaper, carpet, kitchen, windows, furnace, laundry equipment, […]

“The more of anything there is, the less they will be worth.”  This applies to just about anything.  Even water.  In the Eastern U.S., where it rains anywhere from 40 to 60 inches a year, water is cheap, and usually no one has to water their lawns or irrigate their fields.  In the Western U.S., […]

I had an interesting conversation with a client last week, and the subject of wills came up, and the death tax someone has to pay when one’s wife, husband or other, passes away.  I have a will, as we all should, but I don’t have an IRA. Speaking about IRA’s, many have placed physical gold […]

I am a fire buff.  I love to hear motor driven, real sirens, as in Philly, not the electronic ones now in common use.  When I lived in Philly, I was a member of the ‘Second Alarmers Association.’  If a third alarm or better was ordered, we brought out the doughnuts and coffee for the […]

We all have ‘ice boxes,’ as we old timers still call refrigerators.  “Ice boxes,” had no moving parts, and did their job as well as could be done before refrigeration was invented.  Cold goes down, and heat goes up, which is third grade science.  In an ice box, ice weas placed on top, and food […]

Things were a bit cheaper back then.  Boneless rib roast, 24 cents a pound, a Model T Ford – $275, and silver 47 cents an ounce.  But that’s not all that made 1912 noteworthy.  A few minutes before midnight, on April 14th, the world’s largest, most up-to-date, modern, luxurious, steamship Titanic, struck a huge iceberg, […]

From a column I wrote 19 years ago… I love to investigate funny money.  “Red Dog”, and “Blue Pup,” monies, are actual facts of history.  I can’t find any of either, even on the internet, but they did exist, when banks actually could issue money.  New York banks, issued dollars, just like the Fed does […]

In the 1800’s, almost every nation used silver for coins, and as a monetary system.  The U.S. stopped buying silver, known as the ‘crime of 93,’ because it thought it had enough, (it didn’t), causing the mines to shut down, and creating a silver shortage for several years.  The 1849 gold discovery in California, plus […]