Interest rates can work for us (when we’re saving or investing) or against us (when we’re buying cars or using our credit cards).
Here are some quick tips to make sure you getting the best rates in either case.
Car Loans: The rate you pay when you pay things like a new car depends on your credit score. If your score is above 740, you should be able to qualify for the lowest rates. Check your score (many credit card companies now furnish your score every month along with their invoice).
If you want to improve your score, visit MyFICO.com for helpful suggestions.
Mortgages: If it’s been a while since you last checked, find out what rate you’re currently paying. If you’re paying 1% or more over the rates banks are currently offering, it may be time to get with your bank or other lender and see if refinancing might lower your rate.
Credit Cards: If you’re a disciplined shopper, it can pay to take advantage of those 0% interest offers on balance transfers that credit card companies frequently offer. Just be aware that the transfer typically involves an up front interst charge, usually 2-3% of the balance being transferred. But if you can pay it off in the time allotted in the offer, you’ll still save far more interest.
Also it pays to shop around when getting credit cards as they can charge asignificantly different rates. To research rates and what card(s) might be best for you, visit credit.com.
At Boomtown America, we salute our nation's libraries during National Library Week (Mar 25-31) by remembering the sensitive, tasteful way those "mad men" of Madison Avenue depicted them in an ad campaign from the 1960s.
BTW - It is said this ad caused hundreds of the nation's young lads to rush to their nearest library so they, too, could discover the treasures waiting for them there!
There is evidence that a daily regimen of low-dose aspirin (what used to be called “baby aspirin”) can reduce the risk of a first heart attack or stroke in those between the ages of 50 and 69. There is also some evidence that it may reduce the risk of colon cancer. Experts warn that such a regimen should only be undertaken by those with a high risk of heart disease and a low risk of bleeding.
As with any drug, do not begin a regimen of low-dose aspirin without consulting your doctor.
Tapestry (1971)
Carole King was already one of rock’s most successful songwriters. But no one could have predicted that when she finally started singing her own songs, she would create one of the best selling albums of all-time by a female vocalist, especially when her only previous album had not climbed higher than #84 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Tapestry has sold more than 25 million copies and is considered one of the top 50 albums ever released by a rock artist.
Together with her then-husband, Gerry Goffin, King had already secured a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame co-writing such tunes as:
- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
- Take Good Care of My Baby
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- The Loco-Motion
- Chains
- Go Away Little Girl
- Up on the Roof
- One Fine Day
- I’m into Something Good
- Just Once in My Life
- Pleasant Valley Sunday
And so many more.
While King often sang on the demo discs (records produced quickly and only intended to demonstrate the song to potential recording artists), she was reluctant to release an album of her own. Friends, including James Taylor, kept encouraging her. So in the spring of 1970, she released Writer. It stiffed.
Undeterred, the very next year she released Tapestry. It was like a dam bursting. Powered by a monster double-sided single “It’s Too Late” b/w “I Feel the Earth Move,” Tapestry roared up the album charts, becoming the first album by a solo female artist to ever rack up at least 10 million in sales.
She copped four Grammys that year for Album of the Year, Best Female Pop Performance, Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Tapestry remained on the Billboard charts for 313 weeks (second only to Dark Side of the Moon).
Her subsequent albums have been very well received, five of them landing in the Top 10.
There is no question that any essential album collection for a Baby Boomer has to include Tapestry. It’s not “too late” to include it in yours.
To this day, walk up to any Baby Boomer and exclaim, “Say kids, what time is it?” Odds are tremendous that Boomer will reply (and loudly, too): “It’s Howdy Doody time!”
No doubt as a child, you may have had a Howdy Doody coloring book, puzzle, drinking mug, Golden Book or if you were really fortunate, an actual Howdy Doody marionette; but how much do you really know about the backstage history of our generation’s first true superstar?
Let’s explore the life and times of this legend.
While our parents used to tell us about Milton Berle being the first TV superstar, the truth is Uncle Milty peaked long before we were old enough to remember him. For us, the first superstar to emerge from that glowing tube in our living rooms was the freckle-faced puppet Howdy Doody.
The first network television program specifically designed for children debuted over the fledgling NBC television network on December 27, 1947. At first, the show was called Puppet Playhouse and Howdy was an unseen character, allegedly too shy to appear on camera with the host, Buffalo Bob Smith. Smith had created the character and voice during his time as a singing radio personality. BTW, Bob’s nickname was both a play on Buffalo Bill, the legendary Wild West showman, and a salute to Smith’s hometown of Buffalo, New York.
The show began as an hour-long program on Saturdays at 5 PM (Eastern). As Howdy’s popularity took off, the network added additional hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The show was unbelievably crude by today’s standards. Performed live through most its run (and starting in 1958, videotaped with very few retakes), lines were frequently flubbed and ad-libs were plentiful. The show basically consisted of Buffalo Bob sitting at a piano, singing corny songs, conducting simple games & contests with the kids in the Peanut Gallery, and providing a largely ad-libbed commentary as they showed old time movies featuring silent comedians like Charlie Chase and Ben Turpin. (NBC had paid $50,000 for a package of silent movies and in fact, created Howdy Doody as way to show the movies and get a return on their investment.)
In addition to Bob Smith’s segments, there would be occasional cutaways to a threadbare plot that usually involved Howdy and the gang in some sort of mystery or adventure. These storylines would play out over several days or even weeks.
In between, Buffalo Bob would enthusiastically hawk products directly to the kiddies himself or as the voice of Howdy, who would also shill on camera. Among the show’s most memorable sponsors (who we assume were also reaping the benefits of Howdy’s enormous popularity) were Hostess Cupcakes, Twinkies, and Sno-Balls, Welch’s Grape Juice and Wonder Bread (“with the red, yellow and blue balloons on the package”).
Speaking of crude, unbeknownst to audiences in the 1950’s, the closed set rehearsals for The Howdy Doody Show were notorious to network insiders for ad-libbed dirty jokes, double entendres and general hi-jinx the cast and puppeteers would engage in before opening the studio to the Peanut Gallery.
Chief instigator of these activities appears to have been Dayton Allen, a young comic actor who provided the voices for Flub-a-dub and Mr. Bluster as well as appearing on camera as various recurring characters like the professional wrestler Ugly Sam. Allen would go on to greater fame as part of the ensemble cast Steve Allen employed for the original Tonight Show and other variety programs Boomers should also know that Dayton provided the voices for your favorite cartoon talking magpies, Heckle and Jeckle.
That first Puppet Playhouse telecast in 1947 was an immediate smash, with kids clamoring to see what Howdy Doody looked like. Original puppeteer Frank Paris completed the first Howdy Doody and got him on camera in early 1948. Bob Smith called it “the ugliest puppet imaginable.” Looking at photo of the original Doody-head at left, it’s hard to argue with that assessment.
But despite the fact they had an overnight success and finally had their star on stage, there was trouble brewing in Doodyville. More on that in our next installment.