Sam Kahn: “I know this won't fly as a submission to the Value Investors Club you wrote about last week, but my favorite recommendation is to buy mutual funds managed by [differently-beautiful] women. Women still have to work harder than men to be successful and [differently-beautiful] women have to work even harder than that. I usually don't find what I need in a prospectus, but with a little research (sometimes it's a judgment call), this has worked for me.”

F Differently-beautiful was not exactly the adjective Sam used, but everyone is beautiful in some way – especially if they’re earning you better than average returns on your money.

UPDATES:

·        Bob Stally: “Forbes.com has some good and active message boards, including one for Calton.”

·        Ralph: “Re: lowermybills.com, you should check out abtolls.com and ecglongdistance.com. Either one has lower rates.”

·        Last March 14 I told you about some stock picks of a very smart friend. As of Friday they were up, collectively, about 67%. One of them, Jones Apparel (JNY), up 73%, and has also been favored by Warren Buffett. I noticed Friday that some Buffett-controlled entities have recently sold some of their JNY. Since I had it in a retirement account, sheltered from tax, I sold mine as well. This isn’t to say JNY won’t continue to thrive, or even that I’ve interpreted the insider-trading data properly. But you know the old saying about bulls, bears, and pigs.

·        Meanwhile, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Preferred J stock (GAJ) suggested here in January at $12 (now $22), paid its regular 58-cent-a-share quarterly dividend again in May, as it did in February . . . leading me, of course, to wish (at least for now, until something terrible happens) that I had bought much more. But there’s an old saying for that one, too – “would’a-could’a-should’a.” Roughly translated: “Get over it!”

·        The free books went to a teacher in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

·        For more on the vandal scandal – click here.