"Secular" Bear Market; OT: Mastercard Moments

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

"SECULAR" BEAR MARKET

   I'm losing my religion!
   From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE, 15 July 2002, pg. M1, col. 6:

_U.S. Bear Market_
_Could Last Years,_
_Some Predict_
(...)
   If so, stocks could be in the midst of a longer period of sluggishness--what some analysts call a "secular" bear market--schacterized by brief and frustrating rallies, after which stock gains are wiped out by repeated pullbacks.

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OFF TOPIC:  "MASTERCARD MOMENTS"

   Flying over here, I sat in a row of four seats.  The other three seats were taken by a woman with two young children.  The flight attendant come over and asked about my son.  I told her otherwise.  And then, later, she beamed about my son again.  So I looked over at my wife...
   At the Schonbrunn Palace, a woman asked for a headset in French.  Then I was given a headset, also in French.  So I'm thinking: which wife do I like better?

   Bruce Gould is a guy a new in law school.  He's associated with Gould legal publications, and he does fundraising for the school.  He didn't greet me and didn't look at me much the first three days of the Berlin conference.  Then, on the last day, we went to the Sachenhausen concentration camp.
   "Barry, Barry, Barry," he said.  "Did you ever give to the college?"
   "Yes."
   "Ever think of an endowment?"
   "I don't make much money," I said.  And then I'm thinking: WE'RE AT A CONCENTRATION CAMP!